September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 6

I had planned to paint one of my Tuscany references today, from a photo. However, when I got up this morning, the sun was shining bright into my studio. Now I could not let go of the sunlight and my cityscape had to wait for its turn. 

The innards of tomatoes always give me the jitters, I have always stayed away from this subject. Today, I wanted to set up something red against the sun and these were just perfect. I hope I have done justice to the beautiful light. 

Sunny tomatoes
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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Up and Down - Original Still Life in Oils

This morning, I lost sleep very early. At a really ghostly hour even by my standards. After tossing around in the bed trying to sleep but with no success, I decided that I might as well get up and paint. The strawberries from the weekend were still in decent shape in the fridge and I put together this set up quickly. 

Up and Down
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 10 inches
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This creamer was painted the last couple of times under natural light. Since that wasn't a possibility early in the morning, I made do with a tubelight instead. 

Strawberries and cream - Original Still Life in Oils

Fresh from the easel today, another bunch of strawberries that had to be painted. I like neither strawberries nor cream. But boy do they make gorgeous subjects to paint! 

Strawberries and Cream
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 10 inches
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Spring on a plate - Original Still Life in Oils

So spring is officially here and so is the deluge of strawberries. There were some strawberries at home over the weekend, but I wasn't very keen on painting them. I was in the middle of some other painting, a couple of more birds that I am doing and I had the onions set up on my table. So strawberries were really not on my mind. And then suddenly on Saturday I dreamt of a set up with fruits and my knife etc. 

So I had to paint them and paint them NOW. My kids love eating them and I had to literally steal these fruits away from my little one in order to paint these berries. The only thing that I do not like about berries is how quickly they get spoilt. So I had to paint them as soon as I could :-)

Spring on a plate
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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This painting has been done using both palette knives and brushes as I wanted to explore a bit with the edges. I am not entirely pleased with it but will continue to push more in this direction. Hope you like it.

Onions and Porcelain - Original Still Life in Oils

I picked up not one but two of these gorgeous jars in a flea market sometime last year. I had painted them earlier and the painting sold a long time back. The jar was in my shelf and I kept telling myself to paint it once again soon. I could finally get to it only today. I went in for onions again as I really like how the colours work well together. This one is a little larger than the previous painting too.

Onions and Porcelain
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms
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30 Things about me - Day 4

Rolling on
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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30 Things about me - #4 - I (try to) grow my own vegetables

Gardening is something I discovered a couple of years ago and is something that I enjoy doing. I find it immensely gratifying to turn your homegrown vegetables into delicacies. It also turned out to be a great activity to involve my kid in. It has not always been a success, however. All we have is a small balcony garden and we tried growing pumpkins there, which turned out to be a disaster. And I still have zero success in growing my favourite herb coriander. We keep trying nevertheless.

While the 30 in 30 days challenge is on a theme and all that, I also try to paint subjects that I normally don't. That's how I decided on these tomatoes today, and pose a huge challenge they did! 

Doc's Window - Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches

I love the windows in this country, and the way people set up flowers hanging from the windows. They are so pretty and makes a walk in the neighbourhood so worthwhile. These bright red flowers were at the window sill at my doc. I was there waiting a couple of weeks ago, when I thought these flowers looked incredible bathed in the morning light. They just had to be painted. I clicked the window from both sides, so hopefully tomorrow I shall post the view from the "other side" :-)

Doc's Window
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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I painted this one very differently from how I usually do. I generally tend to establish my mid tones first and then go in for the lights and the darks. Today, I laid down all the darks using Burnt Umber and some Grey/Blues. The whole painting took shape almost monochromatic. I then finished it with the flowers. The little spots of Cad Red light were done at the very end. I decided to leave the background as it is, without adding any further detail. It looked finished to me and I did not want to mess it up further.