Dancing feet #17 - Textured Acrylic Painting

Some more Tango. While I am working on the Belly dancers, I have also started a piece with a Flamenco dancer. Their red dresses scream of passion and I find red in any form simply irresistible. So I guess the next few pieces are going to be Flamenco. And while I am at it, I plan to start working on the Indian dance forms quite soon.

Dancing Feet #17
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$35 + shipping, Click here to Buy

Just as is the case with everything Indian, the dance forms are also innumerable in their diversity and each one is beautiful in it's own way. A friend gave me an idea/suggestion in my facebook fan page last week and that has got me seriously thinking about the Indian classical dances. I am right now researching, going through images and doing some preliminary work. As I have zero knowledge of dance of any kind whatsoever, it is quite challenging. So yeah, you could expect something Indian from me sooner than later.

For now, just enjoy the sizzling Tango :-) Let me know what you think.

Dutch Damsels #11 - SOLD

I am so thrilled to let you know that one of my tulip paintings sold earlier in the day today. This also happened to be my first client outside the US. That was no doubt the best way to start my New Year. And I hope this is a sign of things to come this year. :)

Dutch Damsels #11
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
SOLD

Dancing feet #16 - Acrylic Palette Knife painting

It was only yesterday that I was talking about the Tango series all being non-textured. Though I like the outcome of these pieces, I am not very happy that they were not done with the knife. When I am trying to bring in a coherent style across pieces and subjects, I want to lessen the use of the brush as much as possible. So this was something bothering me. Well, not any more. Am I thrilled or what?!

Dancing feet #16
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$35 + shipping, Click here to Buy

This tango painting is done with the knife entirely, including the woman's legs, skin and all. What I love about the Tango pieces is that they hardly take any time at all. They are all done in an hour or less. Since I hardly do any work on the background, it is very less time consuming but quite effective. Let me know what you think!

You can find my Make-an-offer painting for January right here in my sidebar. Check it out and mail me if you are interested.  Please do share with anyone who would be interested. Thank you!

And the winners are...

First of all, my heartfelt thanks to all those who shared a link to my painting giveaway on various networking websites. My blog received a lot more page views and my facebook fan count grew by about 10 people over the last week. Thank you to each one of you.

I did draw out three names using a random number generator and the winners are:

1. Juhi Jairath Chawla


2. Sasmita Maurya


3. Nithya Vasudevan

Congratulations to the three of you. I hope you like the little paintings that you receive. There is a minor glitch though. Both Juhi Jairath Chawla and Sasmita Maurya had wanted the Bird of Paradise. But since Juhi's name was drawn first, she gets to receive the Bird of Paradise. I would request Sasmita to let me know of another painting that she would like to receive.

Thank you so much once again for playing along. This was great fun and I would like to run another giveaway around my birthday. Let's see. And giveaway or not, I would request you to share links to my blog/website/work with your friends. I deeply appreciate it.

Dancing into the New Year with some more Tango

I thought I was done with the dancing feet series as I could not find any new references for a while. I wasn't looking actually. And then I remembered that I had gotten permission from quite a few photographers on flickr to paint with their images as refs. This is from one such photographer who was generous enough to give me permission. You can see the original photo here.

Tango #15
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$35 + shipping, Click here to Buy

I have gone back to using the brush for the dancing feet, as I was not very happy with the knife results for these paintings. I might try them again with a knife later, with a little more patience perhaps. For now, this one has no texture though.:) Let me know how you like this one.

A peek into new things in store in 2011

A very Happy New Year to all of you. May the year be filled with everything that you could wish for.

"Make an offer" painting

I was thinking for a while about what new to venture into this year, and this was one of the first ideas to strike me. This year, I am going to be offering a painting every month as a "Make an offer" painting. I will put this up on the first of every month and you can bid on the painting for the whole month. What is interesting is that the starting bid value is discounted than the actual value of the painting. So you do have the chance to buy art at an extremely affordable price from me.

How does it work?

If you are interested in this painting that is on offer, send me a mail or message me on Facebook or whatever, with your offer price. I will update my website and blog with the current highest offer every time I receive a new offer. So all you have to do is drop by my site and check out the current highest bid and place your bid higher. Simple! By the month end if it is not yet sold because there has been no bidder, then I will list it in my store at the actual price. Which means, during the time when bidding is on, I will NOT be listing it in my store and it will be available only directly from me.

A new painting will be on offer in the following month, no matter whether or not the previous month's is sold. And so on. I am quite excited about this initiative and I hope you are too. I would request you to share this with your friends and anyone else who would be interested.

Jan 2011 Make an offer

This painting is a cityscape from Venice from my last visit there. Though Venice is all water, the islands too are beautiful with colorful houses and charming buildings. This is one such view from one of the islands. Venice has been on my "to-paint" list for ages now and I hope this is a sign of things to come.

An afternoon in Venice
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Bidding starts at $60, Mail me to place a bid

With this painting, once again I have ventured into oils with the palette knife. My comfort levels are just getting better. This one was good fun. I spent more time in deciding between oils and acrylics, than the actual painting time itself. Phew! This painting is done on gallery wrapped canvas and the sides are painted. You can therefore hang it even without a frame, though I must say it looks awesome with a good frame.

I hope you like it. Let me know your comments.

A year in paintings - a video

Most of my work this year was of course in the 5 by 7 size. 280 of them to be precise. But, I did paint in a lot of bigger sizes too. The dancers are all 16 by 20 inches, the summer observations are about 10 by 12 inches and so on.

The bigger pieces I believe would be a better indication of my style of work, as compared to the smaller ones. The whole year, I have experimented quite a lot with subjects, style, colors and so on. I tried my hand at multi panel pieces and I am quite confident with them now. For someone who painted her first ever floral on the 1st of Jan 2010, they are now my most favorite subject by a mile. I almost completely became a palette knife painter. So many things that happened this year.

Paintings 2010 by Nithya Swaminathan

I have added the paintings in the precise order in which they were done. Hence I would love to hear from you if you see a growth in my work over the course of the year. Do you honestly think that these pieces, when seen together, are coherent in style? Do you see "me" in these pieces? In all of them? Are there pieces that stick out like a sore thumb? I'd love to hear any comments from you, all feedback is most welcome.

And for the record, from the first painting to the last one, I personally feel things have changed for the better. There is some hope after all! Feel free to share this video to anyone who might be interested.:)

And finally, one last and final reminder for my painting giveaway. I am giving away three original paintings as a New Year's gift, to 3 lucky people who have shared my link and left me a comment. And the giveaway ends today. Don't worry too much about the deadline based on your time zone, this is anyway not the first thing that I am going to do in the morning. So you are still most welcome to enter. I also noticed that some people have shared a link but have not left a comment. If you are not interested in receiving a painting but have shared just like that, thank you so much anyway. If you have missed leaving a comment but intended to, please do right away. Thank you so much. Have a fantastic New Year everyone. See you next year!

Up in the air - New Acrylic Tango painting and reflecting on 2010

I wanted to squeeze in one more painting for the year. I was having a huge quadtych of Irises that has been pending from quite some time. And my husband had given me a deadline till the year end to complete it, and since I too had the same idea, I was working on it the whole of today. But then, Mr. Murphy had to have his say and it was just not turning out right. It was somewhere between real and abstract and everything in between, and nothing related to what I had in mind. So I ditched it, left it aside for later. That's one baggage I carry with me into 2011.

But then, I was not at peace with this at all and had this nagging feeling eating my brains out. And then in a flash, it occurred to me that I do a quick small one and yet manage to squeeze in a new painting for the year. And I spent no time in deciding what to paint and stuff. And this was completed in about 15 minutes. Or a little less. I was mighty pleased with myself at having got the better of Murphy.

Up in the air
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$35 + shipping
Buy Here

Thinking back, it was just the perfect way to finish the year, as 2010 has precisely been that kind of year for me. A year where I could find time from the most unsuspecting corners. A year when I managed to create over 300 pieces of art, a lot of family and work commitments notwithstanding. A year that I could look back to, and beam with pride at all the art that was created in an hour or less, as opposed to feeling guilty about all the hours wasted. A year when I developed a unique style and am closer to the day when my paintings could be identified as mine without seeing my name on them. A year when I had a lot of people write to me that they loved my work. A year when I proved a lot to myself about what I was capable of. A year when my distant dreams became a bit more tangible and real. A year that had a lot of growth for me as a person and artist. Certainly a year to cherish, and a new benchmark to better next year.

I will not be publishing a goals post, I am sure you're already deluged with such. I did not post one last year either, and ended up with 313 paintings, the largest of which is 32 by 32 inches. I daresay I do not believe in publishing and publicizing what you plan to do. That's not to say I do not have a plan in the first place. Far from it.

A very happy New Year to everyone. May 2011 be better in every which way!

Vineyard Panorama - New Textured Triptych with Acrylics

I had promised a couple of days back that I have at least 3 more paintings coming up. This is the 3rd one, as promised. But then, this is technically three paintings into one. :)

The autumn season here is very beautiful in the wine growing regions along the Rhine. One of my very first paintings this year, "Evening sun at Assmannhausen" was also based on an early autumn view of the Rhine valley taken last year. This one is from one of our day trips this autumn. We had gone on a picnic to a little village called Edenkoben, in the Rheinland Pfalz or the Palatinate region in Germany. It was perfect timing for the harvest that we could pluck grapes and munch on them throughout the day. And I absolutely love the fresh new wine that you get in this season, just after the harvest.

Vineyard Panorama
Acrylics on Canvas, 16 by 36 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Click Here to Buy

This was quite an ambitious triptych as it is based on different photos. I cropped and played around with a few images to get a reference with a panoramic view. This was our view from atop a little castle in Edenkoben, just overlooking the vineyards. The painting is also entirely textured. For the first time, I have done even the skies with the knife. Vineyards are a super subject to paint with the knife, it gives that really nice look of rows and rows of grapes. It was great fun! This time with the triptych, I also made sure that the paintings work decently as stand alone pieces. I think I succeeded reasonably well with that. Let me know what you think.

This is probably my last painting of 2010, unless I get wildly ambitious tomorrow. :) I have a lot more pending things to complete with regards to updating the blog/website and the likes and probably put up a year end review post. I might just not get the time to paint, but let's see.

And finally, yet another reminder - I have my painting giveaway going on this week where 3 paintings of your choice are up for grabs. Please share the link and leave me a comment. Thank you for participating! :)

Flying Flames - A belly dancer in oils now

I fell in love with this reference at first sight and this time I have kept it really close to the reference. I did not want to change a thing, it was so perfect as it is!  As is the case with all my belly dancers, this one too is based on a reference photo from Flickr photographer Adelita Chohfi.

Flying Flames
Oil on Canvas, 16 by 20 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Click here to Buy

After doing all the belly dancers with Acrylics, I wanted to do one with oils for a change. The flowy fabric was great to work with oils as I wanted it really smooth and silky without any texture. I hope you like it! Let me know what you think!

The world ahead - Commissioned Acrylic Painting

As it is the year end and just as I am completing pending paintings, I was also skimming through my drafts only to realize how many paintings I have not blogged. Well! I will try and post some of these drafts, but not sure if I will be able to post all of them. This one I just had to, as it is one of my favorite pieces from the year.

This was a private commission from a friend that was completed earlier this year. The seed of thought for this one came from my friend who wanted an image that will be very South Indian. This child is her little girl, dressed up in a Pattu paavadai, the traditional Tamilian attire which is a long silk skirt. When it comes to a backdrop that is distinctly South Indian, nothing beats a temple really.

I decided on a monochromatic look because I did not want the temple to compete for attention with the child, which was definitely the focal point of the painting. But then, the temple had to be prominent too, so I have incorporated a lot of texture into this painting. This was my first time experimenting with structuring elements like pastes. The temple was carved out with heavy gel medium and then painted with Acrylics. And since black and white was too bland for my liking, I gave it a light sepia tone.

The world ahead
Acrylics on Gallery Wrapped Canvas, 32 by 32 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
SOLD

The temple reference is based on the Somnathpur Temple nearby Mysore, which is one of the most stunning temples I have been to, a symphony in stone. The temple is full of exquisite carvings from the Hindu mythology, done in intricate detail. The temple in real is monochromatic and doesn't have a colored Gopuram (tower) like temples in Tamil Nadu. So the minute I thought about a b/w background, the Somnathpur temple was the first thing on my mind. And fortunately, I had some nice photos based on which I could do a sketch.

With a commissioned piece, that's how I work. I will give a preliminary sketch which has to be to the complete satisfaction of the client, only after which I will start working on the actual piece. It is much easier to make any changes at the sketch level itself. I will be sending across work in progress images regularly as often as I could too, and there is always room for last minute changes, but still.

The main challenge was that the child had to be the focus of the image, though she occupies about 10% of the canvas. And the child had to resemble the little girl in the reference, though her face was hardly seen. Now this is a real challenge I tell you, to convincingly get the resemblance in the profile. This piece is huge and the biggest problem was in shipping it. When shipping smaller pieces itself makes me very anxious and stuff, shipping something of this size is a lot of tension. I can never trust my painting with anyone else, not even my husband :-D So definitely not the shipping guys and it makes me really paranoid. Anyway!

Your comments are welcome!

Reminder:

I am sure you now know pretty well that I have a painting give away going on this week. Don't miss it, it is a great chance to receive a piece of original art. My post about the giveaway. Do share it with your friends/anyone who might be interested. Thank you!

Show Stopper - New Textured Acrylic Painting

Got back to another belly dancer after a long long time. I had started with this one more than 9 months back, as soon I completed Break Free and Ecstasy. With the background done and some initial sketching done, I had just put it off one day as the face wasn't just turning out right. The angle was very tricky and the proportions between the face and the body were always haywire. I never got back to it till a couple of days ago, and I am glad that I did not in a way.

Now when I picked it up, I was completely fresh with the subject, new perspective. After correcting the errors with the face and the initial sketch, my first thought was where to use the knife and get in some texture. Of course, these belly dancers have highly ornate dresses with beads and mirrors, so it is ideal to play around with the knife. I have painted her dress completely with the knife, have also used a little bit of metallic silver paint. I like the effect it gives.

The belly dancer series is all about capturing movement. With the hazy background, flowy dresses etc, it is my attempt to capture the carefree attitude and movement. This one was entirely the opposite though. There is nothing about movement here, it is all about a moment of silence. A pause in between a performance. And the anticipation of "what next". The dancer's grace and attitude had to be there without an iota of movement. I loved that challenge and it was great painting this one.

Show Stopper
Acrylics on Gallery Wrapped Canvas, 16 by 20 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Click here to Buy

Looking back at the entire year, my most favorite paintings are all of dancers. Or at least people. This is definitely one of my focus areas for next year, to paint the figure as often as possible.

I am very satisfied with the outcome of this one. Very very. Thrilled in fact. I love the impact it gives. You comments are of course most welcome!

A reminder:

My year end painting give away is on this week, please do participate. You get to win an original piece of art :) Check out my post here. Please pass on the word and get as many people as possible to take part. Thank you so much!

My first painting give away - Welcome 2011!

Why a give away?

Just because I am happy :) If you thought you had enough of giving and sharing with Christmas, how about extending that a wee bit longer? Isn't that exciting? I have wanted to run a painting give away for sometime now, and after mulling over the idea, I decided that the New Years is the perfect time for it. I think it would be great for you too, to start the New Year by receiving a special gift. Isn't it?

2010 has been a great year for me on many counts, and I would love to look back at it fondly. 2009 ended on a lousy note and I was SO looking forward to this year. And it has been a real blessing. At the end of the year, when I look back at all that has happened Artwise and otherwise, I am a very happy and contented person than what I was a year before. And I would love to share that happiness with you, my dear readers. Yes, even if that is just a single digit number of people :P And what better way than sharing a piece of art.

The other reason that I want to do a give away is of course to get more readers and blog subscribers. I share my work on facebook and/or twitter almost every other day, and my blog feed is published on facebook as well, but I am not quite sure how many actually read it.  I could get more people to read now, hopefully.

I have had people on my facebook friend list send me mails asking if I sell anywhere online, if I take up private commissions, if there is a portfolio where they can see all my work together under one roof etc etc. The list is endless. The answer to all these questions is always a "Yes", and it is all right there if you take a moment to drop by my website. Actually you know what, you could buy my art right on Facebook, on my fan page! How cool is that! So when I have published all information and people are still not aware, then I am obviously not networking right and promoting myself well enough. So I hope this is a baby step in that direction, to get more people to be aware of what I do and what I could do for you.

When?

This whole week, till Dec 31st 2010, I will be running a give away and you could participate no matter where in the world you are. On the 1st of Jan 2011, I will draw out 3 names using a random number generator and each of them gets to win a painting of his/her choice. So yes, not only do you have the chance to own an original piece of art, you also get to choose which one. :) So here we go!

Which paintings could you choose from?

Now this is very important isn't it. Though I do paint in sizes upto 3 ft by 3ft (largest so far), for the give away, you get to choose work that measures 5 by 7 inches only. Don't worry, you have nearly 300 paintings to choose from, remember my 300 to 30 project earlier this year? That would include my pears, snowscapes, waterlilies, the million irises, gazillion tulips, poppies, poppy fields, lilies, coneflowers, the Tango dancers and what not! And don't worry, not all of them are trash, I am sure you will find one or two that you like :) In my sidebar here, you will find links to my facebook albums too having all these paintings.

A word about these paintings. Most of them are textured, done with the palette knife, and look three dimensional. All of them are Acrylic paintings and will be shipped varnished, ready to frame. And they will fit into a standard store bought frame. The work will tempt you to touch and feel it, which is very exciting I can assure you. There are non textured pieces as well, the water lilies for instance.

How to participate?

All you have to do is this:

1. Share a link to my blog/website on Facebook/Twitter/elsewhere. (I wonder if anyone uses any other network other than the two, but still).  Maybe even on your blog.


2. It would be awesome if you could share the link to this post itself, so that more people could participate in the give away.


3. Come back and leave a comment here on this post, with the link. If you have tweeted, leave me a link to your tweet so that I count you in for the draw.


4. And while you leave a comment, also let me know which painting you would like to receive, if you were to win. And why. As in, why do you like that particular piece. The last point is important, otherwise I will choose your art for you :P


5. If you share separately say on Facebook and Twitter, feel free to leave two links and I will enter your name twice. :)

Was that simple? Thank you so much for your patronage, as always!

This is not the last post for the year by the way, I have at least 3 more paintings coming up. So stay tuned.

Christmas Penguins - New Oil Painting

One more still life capturing the spirit of the season. I am having great fun with these little pieces. Last year, I tried doing an aerial view of a big Christmas Market, but I trashed that piece as I did not like it. These pieces are much more fun, they are focused on just 1 or 2 objects and still capture the spirit well. If I have to buy all of these, I'd run out of space at home, so painting them is the least I could do. Most of the Christmas markets have a lot of things in common, and superficially they look alike. But these decorative pieces in the shops are generally based on the regional specialties. Like in Michelstadt, there were a lot of wood carvings and work made out of wood. They were of course very expensive too :)

Christmas Penguins
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Buy Here

Did I mention already that these Christmas pieces ship for free? Oh yes, ABSOLUTELY FREE WORLDWIDE! Just because I am quite happy and wanted to offer something nice to my collectors. This is only for the Christmas pieces though. I will add the normal shipping rates from the New Year, so this is only for the next 1 week.

I hope you like this one! Feedback and comments are most welcome :)

"Moo"rry Christmas!

This is yet another still life from one of the Christmas Markets here in Germany. We visited 4 different markets over the 4 weeks of advent and it was great fun. This set of dolls is from the market in Michelstadt, Odenwald. It was my favorite market this year, thanks to a great suggestion by a friend. We had an awesome time, the atmosphere was terrific and the Glühwein, phenomenal! I'd love to go back there next year.

We had such a tedious drive with quite a few detours due to some road work and accidents. But it was all worth it in the end. Hope you like this one.

"Moo"rry Christmas
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Buy Here