Miniature Painting- "Caught in the storm"

  

2.25"x 3", Acrylic on Canvas

This is my first miniature painting. Had fun painting it. It was requested by my son who loves ships and plans to place this on his study desk. When it comes to creative satisfaction, I realised, size of the painting doesn't matter at all. Its experiencing the joy of bringing a blank canvas to life that matters! :)

Still Life with Oranges

6"x6", Acrylic on Canvas

Enjoyed painting this still life with oranges and jug. The purpose of this exercise was to try using complimentary colors, such as blue and orange. It has worked well, since these colors are pleasing to the eye. Plan to do paintings of other complimentary color sets as well. 

"Sit by the Palms" - Plein-air painting

12"x16", Acrylic on Canvas

This painting started as a plein-air exercise at a recent workshop that I attended. I finished it in my home studio.


Here are a few glimpses of the process...

 

Scene selection

Sketching 

Sketch 

Blocking in stage

Painting process

Nearing completion

   

Elks grazing in the morning light

41"x27",  Acrylic on Canvas

Enjoyed painting this scene of Elks grazing in the Jewel Meadow park. These are Roosevelt Elks or Olympic Elks found primarily in the pacific northwest of the US. And this painting is purely my interpretation of the actual scene.

The fairly big size painting posed some challenges. It required me to constantly step back and adjust the value relationships between different elements.The meadow required many rounds of glazing. Achieving the subtle light/color shifts in the grass and flowers took a while compared to other parts of the painting. At one stage, I got frustrated and stopped painting for two days. But the break helped me understand how to go about it and I resumed until I could pull it off!

In this painting, I was also experimenting to achieve color harmony which has always been a struggle for me. Composing this scene was challenging and fun. Various photographic references with some imagination helped. Took some artistic liberty in introducing a small pond, highlighting flowers and playing with the background light in the trees, to achieve an overall satisfying scene. And, this is one of the reasons I enjoy painting. :)