Lit-o-Fest 2019 Mumbai

My Painting Serendipity got exhibited in Lit-o-Fest 2019 , by Gallery Art Desh managed by artist Gautam Patole. Was nice to be a part of this prestigious gallery! 

"Basant" in a Noida home

    

My Painting Raag Basant 2, finally reached the Noida home  for which it was made! It takes pride of place in the exquisite set-up of the drawing room, above a beautiful setee!

A lot of planning and toil has gone into this work. A complete dry run with samples made to match the colours of the upholstery theme and sizing went into the pre plan! The painting itself took me three weekends and then almost a month of drying time. As about the courier, that was another story. But finally there it hangs, resplendent in the golden frame! 

Opiate

Oil on Canvas with palette knives

14" X 17"

I painted flowers after ages. I have been busy drawing figures and making trips to Art Society in between for figure work. However, I have also come to a flower block as many of you know! This is yet another of crowd sourced images of flowers sent by friends on my facebook.
This artwork is inspired by an image of poppies sent from a friend's beauteous garden and I hope I have done justice to their fierce beauty. I have so many more images to go!!

Another distraction to my art has been my house cleaning. I have been on a cleaning spree and have come to such a stage that I had to throw even brushes and few old paintings! THat's the price of living in  small apartments in big cities!

I have a few figure works to squeeze in before I work on the next floral, which will be hopefully soon!   

Elysian

oil on Canvas

18x24"

An artwork done from a group of crowd sourced photos. 

Meanwhile, my art time has been taken over by deciding on a logo for my quotes. Phew! 

Aurum

Oil on Canvas with palette knives

16"x24"

The resplendence of laburnum cannot be fully brought out on canvas, but that does not deter me from painting them. This was painted from a photo sent by a colleague . I delighted in splashing the golden colours while painting this one.

L'affair avec wood

                  Marquetry - Oil on wood. 14x 12 " 

       

Mahogany. Oil on wood with palette knives.

20x 16 inches.

My serendipitous foray into wood has spoilt me. After the two pieces of wood which came my way I attacked this piece stashed away from an AC repair job two years back. I gave vent to my wood withdrawal happily for this. My knives have finally met their match on wood. I can slash and flourish without worrying about cutting! Unlike canvas!
My new year has started with a new promise.Some new alliances and new avenues. Am excited and hoping to paint a lot this year!
Meanwhile if anyone wants to give me a gift you can pass any discarded pieces of wood my way.I'd be delighted!:)

Nuclear Family

Nuclear Family
Oil on Ceramic.
From Left: Adara, Amarillio, Amaranda, Areta

Adara - A close up!

A whirlwind long and extended weekend of painting. I did my own painting getaway by not getting away from home! I gave myself a stay-cation so I could just paint. What's more, these are just few of the plates from all that I painted. Wait and watch for more! 

Some surprising changes with the florist! Things have changed and how! The other day I dropped in quickly to buy a bouquet for a friend, whose party I was attending.He started matcjing colours and suggesting what I should paint. When I told him it was not for painting but for gifting, he almost looked offended! What a change from how things were! He is slowly turning into my flower consultant - as far as what he thinks should make its way onto my canvas!

I came away smiling!!!:):) 

Todi- 14 "x 16 "

1

Todi. Oil on Canvas with palette knives. 

Two months of handling skin had taken me to shapes,contours, blues and browns. I was finally ready for the soft tendrils and bold colours of my favourite, which is flowers and here it is! Todi is named after Raag Todi and is a product of three hours of a precious Sunday. My florist has meanwhile changed and the new one who I bought these lilies from could not fathom why I matched colours with such importance. I shot him a look thinking he would soon come round and be a part of my story!

Reds, greens, blues...am back!

Amethyst

A beautiful purple is what I wanted to see on a fresh white plate.
The journey with plates has been quite frustrating. I am not happy with what is available in the market and I haven't been able to explore what else lies out there. A plate is too tiny a surface to unleash angst or paint with fury. It requires severity. It requires tight strokes. It requires perfection. Canvas...here I come!

Bahaar

Bahaar. Acrylic on plate.

I have just two acrylic tubes which are fast drying and I had to use them. I left the whole set somewhere but had brought these two to outline two works. Since I have no other colour I couldn't, mix any values and decided to do something different. I have called this Bahaar as am singing that Raaga these days . This will be my second and last acrylic on ceramic .  This was more an exercise to keep in touch with painting lest I stop painting altogether!

In a Gallery

My painting 'Orchids', which was selected in an International Contest Confluence and exhibited in Lalit Kala Akademi ( A prestigious gallery of India) , is now in the collection of a gallery and will get to hobnob with artworks of big artists! Am excited to be able to have my artwork in a place which matters. This painting is as such dear to me. When I called the person who had sent me the original flowers as a token from his farm, ( as he had done to many who had visited his farm that day) he was quite dazed and found it difficult to connect the dots. An innocent gesture of sending flowers from his farm and having them get on to my canvas and finally travel to Delhi and now being part of a collection!

Meanwhile, I am rejoicing in my heart. Where your art goes is as important as where your art hangs!

Charisma

Oil on ceramics.
I picked up a single rose on my morning walk. The florist is now my friend. He has seen his flowers on my canvas, from a picture on my cellphone and has decided to be cordial to me. I painted this yellow beauty with simple but bold charisma and filled up the sides witha lively border.

People often ask me why my motifs have asymmetry as a recurring feature. I ask them, " Have you ever seen complete, geometrical symmetry in nature? Leave it loose; enigmatic, flattering, waiting to be enhanced. "

Gerbera

OIL ON CERAMIC. SOLD.
Painted from a flower off a huge bouquet of blazing red Gerberas got for my birtthday,  this is now going to adorn another friend's cabinet!

Bageshri

Another one in the series I decided to call 'Ragini', a female Raga.
Am hoping to exhibit a few of these in an upcoming show. Another reason is that I bought a dozen plates so I either paint them or use them as dishes!!:)

Sohini

A plate yet again. For those who came in late, I've been having an affair with plates of late. For those who were already here, hark! Do not assume am doing them as they are an easy solution to my creative urges. Believe me you, a plate is quite an act of bravado. I have backpain everytime I finish one, as doing one entails too much detailed working and I usually have a loose style of working. It's an even bigger hassle to pack off sold plates as they are highly breakable and need careful carriage and transportation. All said and done here is my nth plate and the reason why I call it Sohini is because that's the Indian Raga I have humming of late!

Dianthus Vincifera-

Got these carnations from my regular florist who is never excited to see me as I spend a lot of time and take only a small bunch, that too after repeated requests to add extra flowers. He does not identify with my need to paint flowers and says he only wants the price. He has big customers who order huge bouquets so am not really a big person for him, even though I may be his most consistent customer.
My maid suggested the addition of the wine bottle as I was setting up the ensemble.
Wine and flowers. What more does a woman want! A photo of the model for reference as well as one from the work in progress!

Plates

A reluctant foray into painting on plates of a friend at her insistence, led me into a new found love- painting on plates! These two series are on glass quarter plates. Ceramics are to follow:

Series 1: The Feelings Series: Oil on glass plates

Desire

Passion

Hope

                                                                                                          

                                                                                                 
Series 2:  Fragrance . Oil on Glass plates

Helianthus

Petalon

           

Rosa

                                                                       
                                                                           

Easter Roundel

Oil on Canvas with palette knives

4" radius approx

This round canvas caught my attention last time I went to buy art stock. Worked on this piece from imagination, which I completed on Easter Sunday. Mean to find an ornate frame for it. 

Flowers have now become so a part of me that they are slowly falling into the rhythm of my life. Do they represent chaos , beauty or diversity I wonder.

Amber

Oil on Canvas with palette knives

10 x 1 inches

A commissioned work, to match an earlier work from my colour series that a friend of mine has on her wall.I quite did this almost in robotic motions. However, I had to make a quick trip to her place to measure the earlier dimensions , so they match this one for sure. 

Antiquity

Art on a plate - an experiment I did at the request of a friend. She almost had to cajole me into doing this. She had these old plates given by her grandmother which she thought she would preserve in artistic memory. After I finally did it- Oil on Ceramic, am mighty pleased with what I have. The shrieks of delight from her made my day. I quite like what I did and maybe can toy with the idea more!