Still life – Blue book on patio floor

Still life - Blue book on patio floor

This was done early on at home from a project book, with the knife technique and brush for highlighting. Took just a few sittings.

I like the colours and the composition here, with the magnifying glass on top of the book. Kind of tells a story… and you can interpret it your own way to get messages like – Always examine the fine print(!), don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Or you could just imagine the reader on a lounge chair getting some sun after putting down the book on the floor beside him/her …. could be anything you please !

Size- 10*12.

After framing –

First animal study – koala

Painting an animal is tricky – the fur effect is not easy and the body shape has to come out right. The tree and background are from a book, but  the koala is adapted from some pictures I had of our visit to Australia. The poses were different from this one, and I just had to adapt and do the best I could. It took longer than I thought as the koala just wouldn’t look right initially.

This could have come out much better if I’d had a picture with the same pose to refer to.  Taught me just how important the preparations are in getting a painting right..!  

9*12" study of koala on tree

Bay windows and red sofa

This is one of my first few paintings done after starting off in 2008. The concept was from a book, where it is done in a few broad strokes, but I changed the colours, put in a view beyond the windows and resorted to a soft look as I just cannot slip-slop into a  loose-brush style.

Flowers in acrylic impasto

This was done a long time ago in acrylics, using impasto gel for the flower petals. I’d just wanted to try it out since they dry fast unlike oils. But I ended up not liking the slight odour it had and the fact that it dries up on the palette too fast.

Still life – Fruits in a bowl

Learning to paint fruits is something that just has to be done. Luckily, this one came out fine. I just had  a stamp-size photo in a fat instruction book to go by. It was painful to keep peering into that tiny shot all the time, but it’s come out fine in the end.

Bowl of fruits on tablecloth

Yes, the composition could’ve been better – the bowl is dead center and kind of against guidelines.  Since  it was from a project book, I thought they should know what they’re doing!  In any case, I added two more embroidered flowers for the table-cloth in the right hand top and bottom corner  to  take the eye away.  Hope it helped.

Size – 12 * 16, canvas board.

Alla prima – coffee & croissants

The Alla-prima method ( all at once, mostly in one sitting) always appealed to me for reasons obvious to a newbie – to get a painting completed in one go. The normal layered approach  is sometimes oh-so-long! I’ve been painting only twice a week at most.  And sometimes there are long breaks for the kids’ exams, projects, falling sick and so on.  So,  it’s almost painful to have to wait for days or weeks before I get to see the final results.

Croissants, fruit and coffee.

I tried this small painting from a project book that I borrowed from the library. But I put in some changes in the composition by making it a round table with a part of the chair-back showing.  In my imagination, it’s at an al-fresco cafe. 

It’s done wholly with a bristle brush,  even for the finishing touches. Well, since I don’t have much speed, I had to do this over 5 sessions…. some alla-prima that! I just can’t be rushed, thats for sure.

Size – 10*12,  stretched canvas.

Framed another one

Brought home my landscape on (22*30) stretched canvas from the framers. They’ve done  a  very neat job of  it,  but I now feel the  frame selection could have been better.

 It’s really so difficult to decide which one to choose from the range available. Sometimes the choice is bang on, enhancing the picture, and other times you’re left wondering if you did the right thing. I guess we learn from trial and error. Will know better next time around…!

Landscape- mountain stream.

In any case, since the wood textured frame looked too dark for the picture, I ended up lightening it by applying acrylic metallic gold paint sparingly on the ridges. Seems better now.

This one was done in class, from a Walter Foster book  by Anton Gutknecht.   I did what I could in the limited time given in class and  put in the  corrections after getting it home ( I found the book at a bookstore for the purpose) .

Size – 22*30, stretched canvas.