Water color painting practise

Last Sunday I spent some time to create this picture. It's a small card made of cheaper quality paper.

Painting a butterfly in watercolors

My water color painting after a long time.Hope to practise and do better next time.I had chosen an easy subject ,yet not doing regularly did cost me!!

Watercolor painting new style

This is my attempt to start painting again. I painted this on rice paper from Beijing sent by my friend Miss Wendy.This is a landscape worked in freestyle. The thin paper was then pasted on canvas board and varnished several times. This gave it a glowing appearence. Hope to see your comments dear friends.

8x10"

initial color

Kashmir valley a watercolor painting

Hello dear friends and viewers of my blog.Thankyou for visiting my blog.I am glad I have seriously started painting again. I have a whole lot of pictures of Kashmir from my holiday and the first painting of the series is here. On our first day we had visited the  Mughal gardens  and second day we were travelling to Pahalgam. After the city sights and a long  traffic jammed bypass road , slowly the scenery changes to beautiful green valleys. We could sight the mountain ranges at a distance It takes about 2 hours drive to Pehalgam from Srinagar.The Chinar trees  and the walnut trees are dominated by the pine woods as we travel to Pehalgam.

The shape of these pine trees reminds me of Xmas cards. There is so much of greenery around. It is hot weather and rivers are thin.The Liddar river appears and disappears as we drive by.

This painting is a very common sight of kashmir valley in summer.Mountain ranges far away and lush greenery around with the conical pine trees. Will be back with the next painting soon and until then hope you enjoy  this painting

Dancer in watercolors an experiment

Hello there. After a small spell of not having the magic of colors from my heart finally I was able to break my non painting days.It is difficult to come back in line after few days of this blackout days. Everything I started to do, proved to be far from satisfactory.So with some pushing and boosted courage I was doing try try try again!..

Reading the book atmospheric watercolors makes you want to breakout and have a blast with colors.But habits die hard,so still there is a lot of clinging onto details and not breaking away from what one learn initially. Yesterday I painted a dancer. Its not a  fully freestyle painting as I had done a pencil sketch earlier.Painting her dress was like going on an adventure allowing the colors to mix on the paper instead of in the palette.I enjoyed painting her dress.I had a hard time making her smile.Overall except for the face I could make  some improvement in this style.When I look at the picture again and again I feel there is something holding her back and its the free motion and the spirit that has to be brought into the painting.For sure I need to attempt this again. Do let me know your comments about this painting.

Do also take a look at another painting of dancers in watercolor in my earlier post http://nandadeviy.blogspot.in/2012/12/dance-drama-in-abstract.html

Painting Freestyle Watercolors -Tulips

Glad to be back doing what I like,Painting flowers.Such a wonderful gift I received  from my dear friends in New York(thankyou Neetu) a book by Jean Haines -Atmospheric watercolors.I liked her writing style ,its as good as her paintings.Its a wonderful book.I am trying to learn  Jeans art of freestyle painting.The Tulips shown below is my first attempt.Painting this small picture I could  feel how I am restraining myself trying to add the right colors and right shapes to the tulips.I did breakaway a little bit but not all.The end result look lively than if I had tried to copy a real tulip flower.Just like Jean said I did have lots of fun throwing in some unusual colors into  the background before I even painted the form of the flowers I hope to  do more of this style  soon.Do let me know how you like this simple painting.

From the exhibition

fellow artist Anitha Kartha

Lilies watercolor painting

Here I have lilies again in watercolor. The oldest flower was done on a darker tone than the others.

 I have done  lilies in water color earlier. Do have a look at them here.

http://nandadeviy.blogspot.in/2012/05/lilies-again-in-water-color.html
http://nandadeviy.blogspot.in/2012/04/lilies-in-watercolour-pink-lily-flowers.html

Festival in Gods own country -watercolor painting

Kerala  my native land is the most sought after tourist destination in India. November and December are the days for temple festivals and its tourist season too. Its great to be able to enjoy this beautiful land  and its festivals. When we are young we  look forward to becoming part of all other places other than our native land.At one point in our life we come back and enjoy all this, remembers so many sweet memories of our childhood in this land. I am glad we have not lost all of the old world charm in this modern world.

So to celebrate  being in kerala  here is my painting on festival called pooram .During these pooram festival each temple showcase their brilliance in art and music . Umberallas of many colors are showcased from elephant tops. The umberallas are not only brightly colored but have very beautiful decorations.There is special panchavadyam( musical concert )  to accompany the display.The crowds throng to see these festivals not only the people from the neighborhood but also people from other states and countries.This is an abstract  painting of the pooram festival . My main aim was to show the hundreds of people who gather here . And they truly complete the picture of the festivities.I loved the way the colors came out and would like to hear your comments.

   

Dance drama in abstract

Recently I had an opportunity to spend three evenings  watching a drama ,baul artiste and bharatanatyam dance. The performance of parvathy Baul was soul searching and mystic. The baul songs are devotional songs.To know more check out  this link http://parvathybaul.srijan.asia/

Dance with spirituality ,divine music and a story to tell inspired me to do my next painting.

This picture was in the news recently about the dance drama Jalam by Samudra centre for Indian contemporary  Performing arts ,Kerala. My painting in watercolor  is just a variation from the original photograph,with my version of a story.. Some one who is always there to catch  hold of  your hand and pull you to safety  when you  are falling falling into  nowhere. Hope my visitors will like it and your comments are welcome.

never letting go

Kathakali in watercolors

This is a painting in watercolor which I was working on the past few days. Kathakali is a dance drama from Kerala.It is a unique blend of various arts like music,dance,literature and even painting.The dress,ornaments and the headdress is remarkable with lot of color and design.The makeup itself takes hours  and is special for each character.This is picture of the Nalan a hero, a good character  from the drama nalacharitham. The green color on the face and the white ridge like mask represent all good gods and heroes.The skirt is colorful and is voluminous.

I enjoyed painting this.As I look at it more and more I feel I should have detailed it more and  taken care to sketch more perfectly. There are so many photos of different kathakali characters and I should find time to do more of them soon.Do send your comments and thank you for visiting.   

Water color practices

This sunday I tried to practise some water color paintings.The painting of an apple was started one week back and I really could not find time to finish the painting with the apple slice  (by the time the apple started to rot).So only yesterday when I found a new one in the kitchen I grabbed it and a knife(for cutting the apple of course!) and started painting. Only one  slice found its way to my paper and the rest I found delicious!.

Then there was this article  in the papers of the native birds disappearing from kerala.(R.Vinod kumar).I attempted at painting the white bellied short wing  bird of which the picture was given.This bird has different shades of blue feathers except for its belly.Its now seen it Munnar and Iravikulam area.Its a small bird but the painting is of bigger size.Hope to comeback soon with improvements.Do visit again.

Farm house with white daffodils view

Hello  Everyone,

Today's painting is a farm house with a view  of a daffodils field.This painting was done in water color and I have used aqua color pencils to highlight the flowers .I wanted to combine a landscape and  flowers. The reference is from a photo in a brochure of a flower bulb company.They have grown white daffodils in the east slope of the farmhouse from where they sell flower bulbs.  That is great marketing I think,showcasing your own products near your store.I would love buying those daffodils!

Its a simple painting I just left white spaces for the white daffodils. I loved painting the brick wall separating the field from the house.Hope to post more landscapes and flowers soon.Let me know your views.

26cmx35cm
watercolor