Hi,

This time I am trying to compile a list of Artists I have liked and would like to discuss their paintings. To start with I am going to make a list of Artists whom I wish to study and track. This is a longish project as the list of Artists is going to be long.

I have always wondered about the abstract paintings and why some of them I seem to like. I want to ponder on what and why I like them? At this stage I think each abstract painting evokes some emotions in me, not necessarily all of them are positive, like viewing a beautiful landscape that evokes "good" feeling. Some of them show power, raw animal power that evokes a different feeling in the viewer. Some even evoke disgust, melancholy, sadness, detachment so on and so forth.

What intrigues me is if different viewers react differently to the same abstract painting? And importantly does it agree with what motivated the artist in the first place?

Well! there is enough here to explore!

Let me make a list of various Indian artists I would like to explore:

Jehangir Sabawala
Nikhil Chaganlal
Sudhir Bangar
Jatin Das
Anjolie Ela MenonSatish Gujral
Achuttan Kudallur
Nupur Kundu
Parvez Ahmed
Nitin Dadrawala
Asit Patnaik
Birendra Pani
L.N.Rana
Manoj Aggarwal
Sadanand Bakre
Carlos Amorales
Deepak Shinde
Sudhir Patwardhan
Minam Apang
Maqbool Fida Husain (M.F.Husain)
Jagdish Chintala
Navin Kumar

I am not planning to go in any particular sequence, but as and when I have enough to write on any artist. I also plan to add more artists as I come across them.

So let me start populating this blog, wish me good luck!

Hi,

First week of November, it rained like Monsoon in Pune and around. Going out for painting was impossible. I had no choice but to remain indoors. While the weather outside was gloomy, I needed colours. I decided to practice few techniques from paintings of my favourite artists. I cut out a small window on a white paper and placed it on their paintings where I found an interesting technique used. I was not too worried about the accuracy but wanted to see the effect, with an eye on the rains, looking for signs for it to clear out. Here are some results.

Here I wanted to try if three distinct layers i.e foreground, mid ground and background can be shown clearly using color tones fore ground dark and sharp, while mid ground with mid key tomes and background with blurred and receding colours. This is one of my favourites of Sachin Naik showing temple at Kelshi. I think I should have used more bluish hue in the background to create a feeling of distance. This I think should help in distinguishing three layers on the spot.

Leaving white paper to show the brightest part of the painting, is advised, but I tend to get paint all over including the brightness. This exercises made me to consciously save the white, have bit of darker colours to frame it so it looks really bright, the result is the gloriously sunlit wall of a hut.
However the white patch on the top left kind of disturbs the white wall, lesson learnt indeed...

Painting trees can be a vocation on its own. It is very delighting to paint trees, but I personally like painting the trunks as the weathered surface has a lot of drama in it. I have tried to get a 3D effect by painting dark to light. I suppose more needs to be done, but this has helped me to observe tree trunks more closely. Some gain...

Tilled roofs are a delight to paint. The changing colours due to uneven moss formation and shadows of nearby trees create a fascinating effect. However thus far, my roofs lacked the fluidity which only watercolours can offer. This try exposed me to it. I was shy of adding more hues to it, but I can see there are numerous possibilities..

I like the effect loose strokes achieve. Many of great artists have mastered it and it looks as if the painting was done without effort. The brush moves like a magic-wand and a great painting emerges. I no doubt aspire to go to that level and this is just the beginning :-)

Hi,
With lots of time on hand and weather in Pune being ideal for outdoor painting, I have started to paint every weekend. Today while painting, I was wondering why my finished paintings do not look as good as published ones and those of other mature artists. I was watching Sachin Naik painting the other day and few things occurred to me. Typically while say working on a tree or foliage, I tend to use same colour. The trick seems to vary colour more often. I noticed Sachin goes back and forth between pallet and the paper many more times. This should help to get some depth to masses. The other difference I noticed is my paintings lack luminosity expected out of a watercolour. I suppose I use less clear water. It is equally important to judge wetness of the paper to get the expected result. I suppose plenty of practice is the only solution here. There is yet another practice I observed which I do not employ much, and that is to fill masses top to bottom allowing colour to form small puddle at the bottom edge giving the opportunity to change colour tone or introduce yet another colour.

Another change of view point is to think of secondary colour (Orange, Green and Purple) as the base instead of primary colours (Red, Blue and Yellow). This can help in seeing more middle shades enabling more variations.

Here are paintings of this week

Two Arches

The morning sun was directly on the side wall, which attracted me and another armature painter. Luckily there was good place to sit. Incidentally the building opposite was a venue for some function. Steadily there were number of young folks around us watching us. Many of them had lots of questions, this on one hand was interesting but on the other disturbing. I suppose this is part of the outdoor session. I think I could have done a better job both of sketching and laying colours. The perspective of the side wall is incorrect. Overall an enjoyable morning.

Wind on the slop

A friend of mine Uday Karanjakar, is working on deciphering "What is a good Painting". He is a chronic analyst. He is gifted with the ability to break a complex problem into components and work on the parts, assemble the whole and go back to the parts again. He can do this Up and Down circus endlessly, improving each time. He was talking amongst many things the movement in the painting. This triggered my thoughts and I painted this showing movement due to wind not on the spot, but by visualization.

Old Pipul Tree

I am sure this tree is painted by novice to more matured artists many times. The tree used to be much more majestic prior to some of its branches falling. Even in its current state, it is a good subject

Hi,

Its been a long since my last post. I was down due to poor health for past six months. But recently got my painting stuff out of the closet and made a fresh start. In the beginning it was a shaky start but Sachin Naik advised me to start on a small format. Here are few of my attempts. I am happy with the result as I did not think I would reach this far. The weather in Pune is gorgeous, ideal for watercolour painting, lots of sun shine, not very warm and plenty of colours and hues.


Old Pump House

This is where I re-started. This Old Pump house is in the middle of a small lake. It used to house a steam powered pump and a boiler on the ground floor. All of that is gone, but the old faithful pump House is still there, in the middle of the lake. Very few actually know of its existence, so mostly it is undisturbed. I have completely failed to capture the beauty of the placid lake, but that will need some advanced technique.


Tree trunk behind the Temple

I was fascinated by the tree trunk that has ruffled the stone tiles of the temple. I liked the force of nature at play. The tree itself is quite handsome, I plan to paint it some day. It being behind a temple, the spot is almost always busy, I need to practice working in a crowd without loosing concentration.

Side Entrance to the Garden

These red stone steps with open gate, guarded by two sturdy pillars are inviting enough to visit the garden beyond. I have exaggerated the perspective for the effect. I painted the same spot again, this time with correct perspective but felt the drama was missing. The trees on the right had a Grey Hornbill's nest with young birds that had just started flying. Their calls of excitement was a constant background.

Ganesh Temple at Tulasi Baug

The early afternoon sun light falling on the side wall and the reflected light on the front of this beautiful temple was quite interesting. I knew it would not have lasted till the end of painting. So I just photographed it and painted later from it at the studio. I was happy with the light and shade effect I could capture. Also Ong Kim Seng's book on Light and Shade was fresh in my mind. I know I still have to go a long distance, but personally I am happy with this beginning.

Forest Dept. Hut

I was attracted by the blue wall of the hut. But while sketching, the lone pillar became the focus. I tried to place Orange and blue adjacent to each other to get a colour contrast. Only regret is I could not capture the dreamlike scene and poor scanning has dulled the colour to the point of a washed out painting. I plan to paint the same spot again but on a larger format. Here I have tried to simplify the subject by eliminating lots of cluttering trees and foliage. Overall a satisfying effort.

I plan to write again with some insights I have got so that I can track my progress.

with best wishes

.

Strong Lines....

Looks like I have taken quite long to understand few basics. Not that the books and my teachers were not emphasising it enough, but I think it hit me quite recently that your lines need to be strong. Your hand should draw the line, how you want it. Sounds simple, but I think this is where I can draw a similarity with playing an instrument. Your fingers need to obey you to play the music. And as in music you have to repeat the same note on and on till it becomes a reflex.

I think in landscape partings, you should be able to draw the landscape as you see. This should become a natural thing. Your hand moves once you decide what you want. I suppose the next is the brush, it too must produce what you want.

I think like in music one needs to "Riyaaz" in painting as well. So keep practicing those lines till you are tired. I think that may be the indication that your subconscious has now taken over.

All the best to me.....

First Frustrations

I was just wondering, why did I want to paint landscapes? And why didn't I do it for such a long time, when it was as possible as it is now? So why now?

It could be that if I do not do it now, I may not do it ever, feeling that the time is getting out fast. May be that I have that much more patience as needed to do a good landscapes.

What ever it may be; the thing is I have started it. Like my wife says it is no more a fad, looks like it has stuck.

Well after Dengle sir initiated me, I bought a lot of books rather I bought all the books that I came across (at least those I could afford). I read them in parts, as I found different authors dealing with different areas that I could understand. But with that I unwittingly started copying them. I still like copying good landscapes. Once you complete, it still is your landscape.

Well I then decided to attend live demonstrations of accomplished artists. That helped a lot. But all the demonstrations felt line a magic show! With quick and unrelated wrist actions, brushes flying across the paper and a landscape just emerged. First few demonstration just evoked a sense of awe. But it helped to make landscape paiting a bit real, compared to the ones in the book. But after witnessing these demonstrations, it was clear that most of the artists had their stock demos. The landscapes that they had done a dozen times at the same location or in their studios. It looked well rehearsed stuff. In case of some artists if the loation was new, they had few standard ways to draw trees, the clouds the huts etc. which they may have drawn a hundred times. To me it looked like a cleaver assembly of a landscape. That started making the whole thing a bit unromantic.

A tribute to Dengle Sir

After a long period of procrastination (almost 20 years) I finally found some one who agreed to take a senior student like me thru' fundamentals of water colours. I met him in the winter of 2004, when I was between two jobs. In hindsight, I realize, I was lucky to get introduced to this amazing medium by Late Diwakar Dengle. He got rid of my fear of touching a colour brush to stark while drawing paper. He was a great landscape painter. He belonged to old school of painters. His teaching style was to encourage students to observe him and start painting. He believed in spontaneity. He was very enthusiastic about outdoor even when he had just turned 75 when I met him.

We went to lots of out door locations around Pune. He would paint and asked us to do the same. He said painting is a holistic experience. He would say "do not partition your painting into technique, form, colour masses etc. get started and paint what you see. Think less and paint more. Over a period of time you will get better at all the underlying departments of painting as you will understand them thru need". He was a big believer of learning by keen observation of both the teacher and the real landscape. I feel fortunate Dengle sir, impressed the art of macro painting method. He died two months ago (March 2007).