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
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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
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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

Merry Christmas!

I'd like to wish all my collectors, readers and everyone else a very Merry Christmas. May you be blessed with a lot of peace and happiness in life. This is a new still life that I painted yesterday. I hope you like it. :)

Merry Christmas
Acrylics on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Buy Here

Now on YouTube - bookmark it my dear readers!

This was looooong due, and am I mighty glad that I finally overcame my laziness! Since videos are *hugely* popular, maintaining an active YouTube channel has been on my to-do list for so long! And everytime I started working on it, I realized it was very time consuming and would so something else instead. Today somehow I decided that I had to complete it.

A year in paintings, Originals by Nithya Swaminathan, 2010

I am a complete novice with iMovie, and was figuring out things with the help of some how-to videos and stuff. I must say of course that Apple makes it child's play with iMovie, to create videos, add music etc etc. I am yet to explore it fully. I have also wanted to do some demo videos of how exactly I paint. I think it is quite interesting to see an artist at work, coz each one of us is so different from the others. I hope to get that done during the holidays as well. A simple short demo of my working with the palette knife. Let's see.

I have right now uploaded two videos, both only of my floral paintings. It does not contain all the florals done this year though. I have omitted more than 50 of them as they were downright embarrassing. However good or bad the work looks, it is I must say extremely gratifying to see all of them together. And to actually think that I have painted quite a lot during the course of the year.

Original Floral Paintings by Nithya Swaminathan, 2010

Looking at the videos, I think the transition time between pictures is too less, kind of changing in a hurry. Let me know what you think. Any feedback is greatly appreciated as I am a complete beginner. Even feedback about the background music, do you think a voice over would make more sense, and so on! Thanks so much for viewing, and please feel free to share! :)

"Ablaze" - New Oil Painting

Last night I was working on a Christmas still life with Acrylics. And painted this one with oils, for a break from my Acrylic paints. Working on multiple pieces at once is great fun but is maddening. And if you throw in a mix of oil and acrylics into this, it is drama of the highest order. New set of paints, new set of brushes, new palette and everything else! Thats's kinda how I work.

I have all my materials, oils and acrylics within reach, within sight. Pick up a different canvas and brushes depending on my mood and just take off from where I left.

Ablaze
Oil on Canvas, 4 by 12 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

My method of working might leave anyone else completely dazed, but it works like a charm for me. I am disorganized as disorganized can be. I paint sitting down, with at least 5 panels around me. So yesterday, as my paint was drying a bit, I was waiting. If I did not have this other canvas within sight, I'd have probably spent the waiting time browsing facebook or some other crap. What I did instead, was pick up this long canvas, pick up my oil paints and palette and stuff, and started painting. Voila! It was completed in half an hour. Or 45 mins at the max.

This was great fun. And after a long long time, this painting is done entirely with a brush. It is not textured. I still love it. Actually love how all the three long canvasses turned out. I think I should work in this format a little more. It has a lot of scope for interesting compositions.

Please click on the image for a larger view. Thank you!

Reading by the Lake V - New Oil Painting

Continuing with the reading series of paintings, this one is done with Oils though. Oil paints are much more fun when used with the palette knife, they are much easier to work with than Acrylics. The drawback of course is that they take ages to dry. What with oil paints "normally" taking so long, the paint is so thick with the knife and drying is a never ending process.

Reading by the lake V
Oil on Canvas, 10 by 12 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

There are some areas that I am not happy with in this painting. Some that I really like too. I am pleased with the overall figure, but the contrast between the guy's nose and the background is very minimal and it is kinda lost somewhere. The background and foreground turned out much better than the Acrylic pieces. I am planning to buy some smaller canvasses and go berserk with oils for a while. I love love love them!

Do you like this one? Better than the ones done with Acrylics? Any comments/feedback? Thank you!

Neck Out - New Textured Acrylic Painting

During my birthday in July, we had gone on a short beach vacation in the Netherlands. But as Murphy would have it, it was too windy and rainy on the day that we could not even walk on to the beach. In an instinct, like my husband and I make a lot of decisions, we drove to Amsterdam. We went on this awesomely romantic "Amsterdam by Night" cruise through the lovely canals at around sundown. This picture was clicked during that cruise.

Amsterdam doesn't have many tall buildings, hardly any. The guide was telling that this is the tallest building in the city or something to that effect, but I was busy watching the gorgeous light fall on the building and tried to get the best possible picture of it. I knew I would paint it, that very instant. I clicked to paint it infact. Now after some googling, Wiki tells me that this is the Westertoren, the tallest church in Amsterdam at a height of 85m. I clicked this almost lying on my back in the boat, which is why the extremely unique angle.

Neck Out
Acrylics on Canvas, 4 by 12 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

Click on the image for a larger view. I had a blast painting this one. Great fun! Let me know what you think.

Carnation - New Oil Painting

God knows after how long I have picked up my oil paints. My last piece was in 2003, as a rank amateur. I love oils, as does any other artist. The richness in color is quite unmatched. When I started working in 2004, I was hardly doing any painting, and when I ventured again in 2006, I began afresh with Acrylics. One big reason was that with a baby around, I did not want fingerprints and footprints (!!) in my still-wet oil paintings. Acrylics were a safe bet.

Now that my kiddo is four and a half years old, I thought I must teach her that these paints will take time to dry and she cannot feel them until then. I love her enthusiasm in wanting to touch and feel my work, but now I have to curtail that in order to work with oils.

I expected that my love affair with oils would still be intact and that we would take off from where we left. Hardly! Somehow, in the recent past, over the last year to be specific, my speed has increased by leaps and bounds. I can start and finish a piece, even up to 9 by 12 inches in size, in a couple of hours. My speed of working had as much to do with the awesome Acrylic paints, as it had to do with hundreds of hours of practice. I don't have to care about going wrong with Acrylics, I can always paint over. I can do that with oils too, but not until they dry. Which is like 5 days. It is like a chiseling process now, to chip out my mistakes and get myself equally comfortable with oils too.

Carnation
Oil on Canvas, 4 by 12 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

I started one of the Reading series of paintings in oils, and reached a point where I had to paint over something and that had to wait. Realized that I must get over my rustiness with something simpler, not a figure for sure. So what better than a flower for me! Had picked up these long canvasses and it seemed perfect for this gorgeous flower. This was done in an hour or so, and I am slowly getting back at ease with the lovely oil paints. Hope to strike a balance between Oils and Acrylics going forward. I can always work a bit with an oil, leave it to dry and finish couple of Acrylic pieces in the meanwhile :)

Your comments are welcome!