SOLD - Spotting swans - Original Figurative Painting in Oils

Spotted at the banks of the Alster, in beautiful Hamburg. I was away for Easter and happened to click some good references. Feels good to be back at the easel after a mini break.

Spotting Swans
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

SOLD - Split 'em up! - Original Still Life in Oils

I promised more avocados didn't I? Here they are! They would look great hung together, but the first one is sold already. Let me see where this one lands up! :)

Ever since I resumed painting this year, I have gone in for a limited palette in an attempt to improve my mixing skills. I have been consciously working on it and can see the strides that I am making . In all my paintings with a lot of green for instance, there is not a tube of green used. There are only about 4 tubes of paint used in this piece - Pthalo Blue, Cadmium red light, Cadmium Yellow light and Titanium white. The variety of browns and greens one can get with the Pthalo is amazing. Simply amazing! And I am very very thankful to Carol Marine for talking about how useful this colour is in one of her tutorials.

An earlier version of me would've pulled out some burnt sienna, burnt umber and black for that seed. Not now, and never again.:-)

Split 'em up!
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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SOLD - Morning Walk - Original Figurative Painting in Oils

I vividly remember taking this picture over 4 years ago on one of our weekend morning walks. I loved the woman's bright red jacket and took a picture, and forgot all about it. It resurfaced again recently and I decided to paint it before I miss out again. Love the play of complements and the spring backdrop. Red makes me happy always :) Let me know how you like it! 

Morning Walk
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

New shoes - Original Still Life in Oils

The shoes called out to me again today :D And I couldn't refuse. So high was the urge to paint them that I got up at 3 in the morning. This one is painted with the palette knife for a change. I missed my knife and thought I'd give a twist to the shoes. There is definitely one more coming up in a few days. 

New Shoes
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches

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Behind the beetle - Original Cityscape in Oils

I don't care much for cars, other than to get me from point A to point B. I am not too fond of driving either and don't get behind the wheels unless absolutely necessary. But then, I love the VW Beetle and find it extremely adorable. Such a delightfully cute little car! I have never been on one but drool every time I spot it. 

So a couple of weeks ago, on a very hot afternoon, I was on my way to school to pick up my daughter. When I stopped at the signal, right in front of me was this shiny red Beetle. I grabbed my iPhone and clicked a picture as quickly as I could. Thank god for smartphones! In all my excitement I did not even check if the picture was good enough for anything, for I had to get back into driving mode within a few seconds. All I had was the time in between the signal change. 

Behind the Beetle
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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When I saw the image, it was a real bummer. It was so blurred and out of focus, almost prompting me to ditch the idea. But I could not give up on it so easily. Who knows when next I get lucky enough to spot a bright coloured Beetle on a gorgeous sunny day with shadows and everything else. So I decided to give it a shot, the horrible quality of the reference notwithstanding. The scene is one that I am very familiar with, just down my road. So I started adding details initially based on my familiarity. But then, I changed my mind and I also decided to work it just like in the reference, adding as much detail as possible only to the car and leaving out everything else without much detail. After all, the car is what excited me to paint this scene.

I think I will paint this again on a larger canvas. I have a 16 by 16 sitting in the studio since forever and I might have found the subject for it. 

SOLD - Avocado Halves - Original Still Life in Oils

I love the avocado and buy it often. It is a family favourite, my daughter loves a good guacamole. I have wanted to paint it but never got around to it for some reason. Many a time I do not cut the fruit into two perfect halves. Sometimes I do not cut it into halves at all, wedge it instead. And so on. 

Avocado Halves
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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So yesterday, when I cut the avocado and it looked so gorgeous, my husband and daughter forced me to take some pictures and keep them for reference. They wanted the guacamole in 5 minutes, but wanted me to come up with compositions and take pictures even before that. How considerate! My daughter insisted that I must paint it! So we ate up the fruit yesterday and I painted these from a reference.:-) I could take only about 2 pictures, I guess I will paint the other one later this week. 

Baby shoes again - Original Still Life in Oils

Oh well I just had to do a third piece with the baby shoes. Changed the direction of the light and modified the set up a little bit. I think I am done with these pair of shoes for now, will wait until we get my little one her next pair.:-)

Baby Shoes
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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Made a collage of the three shoe paintings and they would look awesome together. When I do multiple paintings on the same theme, I'd love it if they went to the same new home. Doesn't happen all the time but I love it. My beach paintings were all bought by the same collector, how cool is that! So this is how the shoes look together. 

SOLD - Music at the park - Original Figurative Painting in Oils

I clicked this reference at a public park a couple of years ago, and it was unearthed recently. I wanted to give a shot at a tighter crop, let me know what you think. I am quite happy with it.:)

Music at the park
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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A Companion Pair - Original Still Life in Oils

The baby shoes totally needed a companion painting, didn't they? So well, here it is! :-)

A Companion Pair
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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SOLD - Juicy Gossip - Original Still Life in Oils

I wanted to paint something with bigger shapes, not worrying much about details instead focusing on the values and colors. And the lemons were just ready! Changed the direction of the light to get  some bigger shadows. 

Do the lemons look like they are chatting with each other? Hence the title! :-)

Juicy Gossip
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

I also decided to challenge myself to paint 30 pieces in 30 days in April. This is painting #2. Let me see how it goes. 

The First Pair - Original Still Life in Oils

My little monster now is old enough to wear shoes! She is 16 months old now and is just beginning to walk, so we decided to get her a pair of shoes. Omg how cute these baby shoes are! I knew even before buying that I had to paint them. They arrived in the mail yesterday and mommy got to use them before the baby. My little one wasn't very pleased with the new heavy stuff attached to her feet though, tried her best to remove them :-) 

The First Pair
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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Having never painted shoes before, these were hugely challenging. And mixing pink is always a challenge. I could not get the pink as it is on the shoes, but I hope I have got something half decent here. These shoes will be painted again in the near future, that much I am sure.:) And I cannot wait to get her next pair already :P