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

Tree - watercolor and ink

One of my very early paintings. Saw it in my friends house  and I dont think I have blogged this one before. It feels great to look back and see what you created along lifes path.

Pussy cat in watercolor

Pussy cat pussy cat where have you been?.Well finally I have recouped my painting skills.This picture is done with its base coloring in water colors and the hair's on the cat  in watercolor pencils.The tummy and chest portion of the cat is white and the back and head is having stripes. The actual painting looks better than the photo but still there is many improvements that I have to make.Do let me know your comments.By the way I dont like cats except this one.

Boxer -watercolor painting

14.5"x 11"

Hi everyone! Its always exciting to learn a new technique when you are not any more in school. Here is me all excited and thrilled that I could really do something out of the box and have excellent results. See what I did yesterday my second doggies painting. Gusti( boxer) is Thomas Jacobs pet dog. I borrowed a photo of Gusti for this painting. Gusti is very serious looking  dog and his face is very structured. I enjoyed painting this one in the same freestyle painting as I did in my last  post .The freedom this style gives is fantastic . Yesterday I completed the painting late in the evening and couldnot really predict what the outcome will be at that time. Never thought I can attempt to draw faces especially without drawing. Hope all of you like this one.Love you Gusti.

Freestyle painting practise in watercolors

My cousin sister Nisha and her daughter Rhea loves dogs.They are always picking  up stray dogs taking care and getting them homes.Since they live in an apartment they can't keep a pet .But this doesn't stop them from loving animals especially doggies!

Rhea loved the doggie painting in Jean Haines book Atmospheric watercolors ,I promised Rhea that I will send the picture after painting. So my practise of freestyle painting  is for Rhea.I need to practise a lot to learn this style, but the results look very interesting and different.

Adopt me!

Flowerscape-The trumphet daffodils garden

This is the last picture I did for the exhibition. The large tree is the highlight of this painting . I worked with ink pen on the bark of the tree to enhance the aged look of the outer sheath of the tree.The white trumphet daffodils(narcissus) in the forefront  is done using negative painting Many people loved this painting and its one of my favourite.I am starting on my next painting today and hope to get it done this weekend. Enjoy!

Flowerscapes-Tulip garden

The landscape with tulip flowers as seen in the Netherlands was my subject for my next  watercolor painting.Many people appreciated this one at the exhibition .The red tulips in the front and then mixed colors and the white tulips made good composition. The grasses in reddish brown color enhanced the landscaping. I was very pleased with the short wall .It was real fun painting this one. Do enjoy!

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.   

Crochet and watercolor practice on sunday

A lazy sunday  gone by . I took up an easy picture to do for  watercolor practice  . A picture from a greeting card. My boat misfired!

I also went to an art gallery  in cochin to see a watercolor painting by two graduates from fine arts college in town. It was a nice show ,inspired me to take up my painting more seriously. There was also an exhibition by a 7 year old girl in acrylic colors. With no basic training her paintings were very good.

You may be wondering about the title yes I did crochet a neck scarf  its the fun part in my life  when I get an artists block .

Harlequin phalaenopsis in watercolor

The new PADT (Paint and Draw Together  ) challenge is flowers of harlequin phalaenopsis orchid  in a shallow vase.I was excited to do this challenge as this is a subject close to my heart and also producing phalaenopsis plants of such varities is a part of my job.Always glad to see blooms of my tissue plants anywhere.In this variety the flowers are true to their name comic and colorful .Color splashes over their white  petals. I have a name for them monster  phalaenopsis!!(personally I am not a big fan of this variety,just like you guessed)

Lela(PADT) did justice to put these strange looking orchid flowers in a beautiful vase.The vase has a clear  design  / pattern   which brings out the shape much in contrast to the flowers with smudges.I think nature went freak on these flowers.

monster orchids size 15"x 10.6" 

I loved painting this challenge in watercolor on Fabriano watercolor paper 300 gsm .First I painted the colorful vase and then darkened the background around the flowers. The same colors  used in the background was diluted to very thin color in the areas were the petals are shaded.The spots on the underside were made dull by using tissue paper to absorb the brightness . I am so happy with the results.Lastly I again gave another coat of paint to right side of vase to high light the roundness of the vase. My painting is now complete and I am eagerly waiting to photograph and publish this painting. 

 Thankyou Lela for this challenge. I have to admit that with every challenge I am learning new techniques and my silly mistakes also.The photograph came out very bright and vibrant ,thankyou sujith your photographs excels my paintings.

This painting is available.Please contact me for details.

Rose in watercolor for the Paint and Draw Together Challenge

A morning Rose was my attempt  for the PADT challenge  from Lela Stankovic. Lelas  compostion are always great challenges. After seeing the entries for the last challenge and the rose challenge really I was wondering if I can present my picture or not.  Some of the artists presented such beautiful paintings, some so good that they looked like photographs, others excelled in their creativeness so much  that another picture was born.

After doing my ladakh paintings in acrylic I was pondering over what to choose for my next landscape  of ladakh series. Before  going  to the next one I had to do  a watercolor painting so that my practice continues. so I took up the PADT challenge. I am yet to study the technique  of painting water droplets.But I did manage a few in this painting . I was able to study the technique  from Susies short tutorials.Thank you Susie.I need to practise a lot on this.

The painting of the rose was done on Arches water color paper 300 gsm size  15"x10.6" and the colors used for the rose were gamborg hue and scarlet lake.  In the petals colors  were dropped on each base color and held the sheet to flow the colors rather than working on each petal. I need to practice more on patience too so that  the paint dry before I put on more color. Please do comment.

White lily in water color

So finally I could break my  inactivity and start painting flowers. Today I completed a white lily picture I saw in a cutflower  catalogue.These white lilies look lovely and robust .These are not fully opened as the other variety of lilies.I was more confident to take up painting white flowers in water color after I attempted the challenge of doing the last PADT (Paint and draw together) challenge of white flowers in a pot. Thankyou Lela.

Here for this picture I could mark out the white area well but had to do the background color a second time  to make the flowers become more prominent.  Size of painting 15"x10.6" water color paper

Let me know your comments.

Also I include the my picture posted for the PADT challenge

Oriental poppies

June is the month for poppy flowers . The vibrant hues and silky petals of the poppy flowers are so attractive.The poppies with their dark red flowers and black eye is very popular as gardenplants and also  as stunning cutflowers.

I really loved painting these poppies.The top flower came out well and my experiment with lots of colors in the background washes really paid off.

Day Lily in water color

Day lilies or Hemerocallis are garden plants with beautiful display of flowers of different colors. The flowers  come in almost all colors except blue. New  varieties have textured petals,double shades and ruffled edges.

The variety  I have painted is called Red Hot Returns.The green throat of the flower complements so well with the Red color of the petals .I have added only  two  leaves in the front  and then  a very light shades of green leaves in the background washes of blue ,yellow and green . 

It is a very simple  picture but still I would like to do a improvised version later .

Irises in water color

When I saw the photograph of Iris gardens in Japan  posted by my friend in the facebook  it was my turn to paint the next flower for my floral series.What a lovely blue!. Iris lilies are beautiful in a group as well as individual flower.The dark blue violet color is eye catching  so are the shapes of each petal. In this variety  the flower is small. Yellow flower is also a common color found in these plants . Happy to inform you this painting  and 8 other paintings posted in this blog (apple blossoms,wild tulips,paeonies,lilies ,autumn leaves etc have been selected for display at Wallframes Art gallery Kochi. 

Lilies again in water color

I made another picture of lilies  in a more brighter color and with the strong background washes.The color of this one is different from the subtle pink  lily I posted last time.The color  of the petals is not exactly orginal  but there sure is a possibility that this color variety is available. The shape and color of the buds blend with the background washes . 

Paeonies in water color

Here is my first attempt on painting the Paeonies in water color.I choose a very dark colored variety but there are many light shades also which are very beautiful. The center stamens  in deep yellow is in a very good contrast to the petals.Even the petals can come in different shapes and some flowers also resemble roses.

Hope to do some more  of these flowers in light shades and giving a transparent look which I could not achieve here.

Limoniums florets in watercolor

Limonium sinuatums or statice are  grown for cut flower production . The flowers come in yellows, pinks ,violets ,blues and whites.Flowers are really clusters of small flowers.

The pink color for the flowers in the painting express very well with the green  of the leaves. Pink and green light washes were given in the background.

Autumn leaves

Some of us have never seen natures colour changes with different seasons. We are fortunate to have greenery all the year round but we do miss out  natures dramatic changes which are awesome . For many people  their landscapes become a kaleidoscope  with each season. For the first time I took in a visual delight of yellows,reds and browns when I visited Bremen in Germany some years back .Truly Beautiful!

So here is a water color experiment  of autumn leaves to remember those days.

Orchid in watercolour

This is another addition to my series of paintings on orchids.This orchid has been done in water colors.Flower has been highlighted with a rusty brick  red lip petal .The leaves were kept minimal but suggestion of other leaves and flowers are shown in the background with different washes.

Cattelya orchids are pot plants with beautiful flowers. There are many varieties with different flower colors in cattelyas.