Father and Son time...

Portrait of Geno Smith, American Football Seahawks Quarterback player

Oil on Canvas 24" x 36"

Father and Son Time

"Dad, I wanna do some Oil Painting of this over my Spring break." - got a message from my son Bhuvan, last Sunday, a day before he was scheduled to fly from Detroit to Boston for a 5-day Spring break, coming home. Along with the message, he sent me a picture of American Football player - Seahawks team  Quarterback, Geno Smith.

"Sure Boo babu, I will teach you.", I replied.

I was looking forward to the moment. He arrived Monday night. Tuesday morning he wanted to start his very first Oil Painting. Of course, he watched me several times doing Oil Paintings.

Day-1, Tuesday

All my Art material, framed paintings, blank canvases were still inside boxes in the basement in our new house we moved into 2 months ago. I took a 30 minute break after my morning meetings to open up the boxes, finding all required for him to start painting. I was able to locate and find all needed.

In the afternoon break, I quickly showed him on a canvas size newsprint paper, how to start sketching with a pencil, then outlining with a single Oil Paint, and then start underpainting. I even showed him how to hold the brush for an ease of hand movements. Bhuvan has been a keen observer right from his childhood. He picked up all in no time and then get going all by himself.

His underpainting looked very good in just one color of some brown shade. He followed all what I said identifying 3 different areas of light: leaving white canvas in the lighter areas, covering dark areas with paint, and covering light areas with lighter shade of the same color. He was on the right track.

Day-2, Wednesday

He asked me about how to proceed with the next steps. I explained him how to choose colors, mix colors on the palette, start painting the first abstract layer. He continued along the path.

Day-3, Saturday

Two days he didn't touch it, and as he was leaving Sunday morning, he was determined to finish it on Saturday afternoon. He focused on details, changed background the way he was visualizing the finished painting. He was on a mission that afternoon to complete. Indeed he finished and signed. He was so happy of his accomplishment at the end; took lot of pictures with it.

He came to me after dinner and shared his most happy moment, saying- "Dad, do you know that I posted this painting on Instagram and tagged "Geno Smith" and he liked it.", showing me that. I know that a sports star responding to an unknown fan's post/story on social media is a defined moment. I was extremely happy for Bhuvan.

Carrying forward the Legacy...

Kids watch us very closely, learn, and follow. I still remember the only one incident of my Dad doing an art work of "Swami Vivekananda" that I watched a little bit when I was 6 years old. That was a "defining moment" which put me on my Art journey with a life-long passion for it.

I am quite happy that my son started getting back onto his early developed childhood Art sense. Once you feel the "kick" of how satisfied you will be from your creation, you want to experience it again and again. That's an amazing feeling in any Art!

For me, it took 3 months to finish my very first oil painting. Bhuvan did it in just 3 days, working few hours each day. Also, it's big in size, 2 feet x 3 feet. I did not have any master to learn from. That's the difference. Learning from a master is like learning years of his experience in just a very short-time. One must be lucky to have this kind of opportunity. I am lucky to have my Son learning years of my experience.

I am with an amazing feeling now - my soul lives longer with my Son in his first Oil Painting, a first of it's kind experience.

"When my Son carries my legacy, I extend my life."

~ Giridhar Pottepalem

Just enough is more than enough...

A Sketch for an Oil Painting
Oil on Canvas, 2 Feet x 3 Feet (24" x 36")

I see some of my Artist friends spend too much time in getting more details into a sketch for an Oil/Acrylic Painting. From my learnings, failure & successful experiences, sketching is an important first-step in Painting, but it must be fast and fairly accurate. It is the beginning phase with which an Artist can quickly decide on the composition and do quick outlines of the main objects with just minimal details.

Oil Painting, particularly is relatively longer anyways, and offers opportunities for corrections at any and every given stage. So, there is no need to spend too much time upfront on the details. Even if you put in all the details, they go away covered by paints once you start painting. As long as the composition and proportions look fairly accurate and good to you, that is good enough. I wouldn't spend more than 15 to 30 minutes on sketching for an Oil Painting.

Many professional oil-painting Artists do sketches very quickly. If a more detailed study is needed they do it separately on a Paper with a pencil or a pen. Good Painters are also good at drawing and sketching. I have seen and heard people saying that Painting doesn't require any experience with drawing. That is a complete-lie and totally wrong. It's like saying, you don't need to know how to walk in order to run. Drawing skills are basics in Art. Aspiring Artists must practice and keep practicing basics. There might be shortcuts for earning money, but not in learning. Practice is the only way! The more you practice, the more you learn and the better you will be.

Learning is a life-long process. The moment we step into this world, our learning starts. We only graduate in life moments before we die, if we live a full-life, of course. Those who don't make it that far are only dropouts.

This sketch with left over oil-paints is fairly big in size, 2 feet x 3 feet (24" x 36") and I spent about 30 minutes to do both my sketch and underpainting. I am all set now for another colorful journey, can't wait to get my hands dirty with Paints all over ;)

"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough." - Lao Tzu

Happy Painting!
Do not stop learning, do not stop growing!

The progress - Step by step

Details

Mediums: Oil on Canvas

Reference: A photograph from my collection

Size: 2 Feet x 3 Feet (24" x 36")

Surface: Artist's Loft Stretched Canvas board, Gesso'd to cover an abandoned sketch

Looking back 2014...

Looking Back 2014...

It's this time of the year that we look back and also look forward in time; look back into the year that is going to become a memory soon and look forward for a brand new year that is going to come in with all new hopes. Of course, one always looks forward for a better year than the previous. As I look back into my Journey with Arts through this year 2014, I have many joyful moments to recollect from my Art World.

Good Start - always puts on a good path...

Like past few years, this year also started with the BigHelp annual event in which our Kalakruti members were the Judges for judging Kids' Art. It was a joyful event from many fronts for a good cause of helping Kids & Schools in India. It was certainly a good start of my year in Arts.


New Art supplies - come with new learnings...

This year gave me new opportunities for learning. I bought some of the best quality Art supplies including Brushes, Watercolor Paper and Watercolor Paints. I also learned some tips and techniques of Watercolor Painting from books, friends and workshops. I started to notice how much of a difference a good quality Art Supplies make. Also, this is the year, I started going big in size with my paintings, I did many 16 inch x 20 inch paintings.

Workshops - a great opportunity...

I also attended a 4-day workshop in Gloucester, MA conducted by one of the Best Watercolor Painters of our age- Thomas W. Schaller, which gave me first-in-life opportunity to observe a professional Artist closely at work. It also changed my style, perspective and the process of Watercolor Painting. I also learned how professional Artists see Art in things around us and more importantly how do they begin the process of Painting and go through it till end. In his words, Tom, in the very beginning of the First Day's session said, "The process of Painting actually starts way before you even touch the Brush...". Very true, I learned some invaluable details and techniques taught by Tom in this workshop. I also tried some of the Paints and Paper that Tom uses in his Paintings and fell in Love with the quality. As I already said many times, I am glad I came across Tom on Facebook.

Not only I attended a workshop, we, the Kalakrutians teamed up with BigHelp and conducted an Art Workshop for children from KG-12th Grade. It exceeded all our expectations. We got a wonderful  response from the community. It was more than a joy teaching Kids and watching them doing and fully involved in Art.

I also introduced Watercolor Painting to my 11 year old son, Bhuvan, who in my opinion has the finest of fine skills in Art. He used to amaze me with his skills when he was not even 3 years old. He always watches me quietly painting in a room and gives the very first opinion. It was a pleasure introducing Watercolor Painting to Bhuvan. Now he knows some of the techniques that I have been learning and practicing lately.

Sculpture - year after year...

It's been my fifth year in a row since I started making Lord Ganesh from natural clay, all by hands. Year after year, I notice my progressing skills. This year I challenged myself to finish it off faster than earlier. To my surprise, I finished very fast and got even better at it. This way of celebrating the Hindu Festival - Vinayakachavithi by making Ganesh is a very pleasant experience to cherish for many years.



Art show - sets the stage...

I can't say that "My Arts were never displayed to public anywhere" anymore. My Paintings were part of the very first Art Show of our Kalakruti group at the Lakeside Gallery in Sharon, MA. It was very exciting to me to be part of this Art Show. It was very well received by Art Lovers in and around Sharon town. My colleague and friend also came down all the way from Somerville on the opening day reception with his Mom who was on vacation to Boston coming from Germany. It was a pleasure meeting many Art enthusiasts. I hope this sets the stage for future. ;)

Variations - on the way of finding my own style...

Going out of my style (if I have one yet), I did several Paintings on various subjects this year, ranging from flowers, birds, landscapes & portraits to Hindu Gods. All in all, I am happy that I finished a few from my long pending wish list.

Admirers - always the best source of inspiration...

I have been one of the millions of Telugu people who admire Bapu- the greatest master of line drawings. His demise on August 31 this year shook all Telugu people around the world. I was remembering Bapu by doing a Portrait of him with some of his drawings around his portrait. I have it now framed and is on the wall in our Family Room at our Home. A copy of this Painting was also taken by the TANTEX(Telugu Association of North Texas) in their monthly literary event of remembering Bapu. Thanks to my school-mate and friend Dr. Narasimha Reddy Urimindi (President Elect.) for giving my painting such an honor to be a part of it.

This painting also got published in the Telugu magazine "Nadi". Many many thanks to the editor Prabhakar Jaladanki.

Towards the end of this year, on Dec 15, I also celebrated Bapu's very first birthday after he passed away by imitating his self-portrait in his style which is very difficult. After a great struggle through each inch of each line, I was able to do it to some extent. I was happy celebrating and remembering Bapu on his birthday, in this way. This will probably remain the last piece of my Art work done in this year.


Quiet Mornings - the best time of the day...

I had spent many of my weekend mornings quietly painting in a room with a background music of classical Hindi and Telugu songs. When I look back to recollect my weekend mornings, I feel good that I didn't have that many weekends without me spending my time with Painting. Otherwise, how can one reach to put in 10,000 hours of effort in Art to call oneself an "Artist"?

Above all, comments by friends on Facebook & Blog, and interest shown by some friends to know the details of my Paintings give me tremendous joy and make me look forward for another beautiful and artful year ahead.

Happy Painting!

Happy & Healthy New Year, 2015!

More than 'what you see'...

It was more than seeing for me...watching, learning and feeling - it's got even better…

All these years, I have been looking at, exploring, and trying out Watercolor Paintings, on my own, in my own way...looking at other Artists' Paintings, exploring and trying to figure out how they did it, reading and imagining things explained in books, watching few not-much-useful videos on youtube etc. But, the workshop that I attended recently, the one by Thomas W. Schaller made me feel like, now I am very-well-taught on Watercolor Painting. It was just a 4-day workshop, but I felt like I learnt a lot in those 4 days by watching very closely and observing one of the “Masters of Watercolor” at work, Thomas W. Schaller, who gave us many demos of various watercolor paintings. I truly felt like I learnt a lot in just 4 days. I never felt like that with anything. I even felt as if I finished a Fine Arts degree in Painting. Ha haa...sounds little exaggerating in my words, but that’s exactly what my heart felt like ;)

Day-1
On the first day morning, we- all registered enthusiastic Artists met at Northeast Art Workshop Studio in Gloucester, MA. After self introductions, Tom gave us a brief and great introduction to Painting and started a Demo Painting of Gloucester Bridge, chosen from a picture he took only that morning.

Day1: Demo

What an amazing experience watching all the magical brush strokes of Tom. All these months, ever since I first saw one of his Paintings on Facebook, I have been admiring and wondering, how well each painting was done. I am glad I told Tom “I feel like learning from you” on Facebook. Thanks to Tom for his prompt reply and mentioning about the workshops that he conducts all over the world and referring me to his web-site http://thomasschaller.com/. Just in time, I was really lucky as there was one coming up in Boston itself and without thinking I registered for it. Thanks to Tom and Thanks to Facebook too ;)

After Tom’s demo of explaining many many great things while he was painting we were on our own doing the same painting that he demoed. I finished my painting and drove back home in very high Art spirits with a very satisfied feeling of “Yes, I could do it”. That wonderful feeling of “I could do it” cannot be expressed any better, in words.

The following is my finished work of the day:

Gloucester Bridge - Watercolors on Paper 16" x 20"

Day-2
The day was well planned and loaded with a couple of Demos by Tom including an evening Demo session at the beach. We all met in downtown Gloucester that morning. The morning was gorgeous and perfect for an outside Painting. Tom walked around and decided to do his "Onsite Demo" of the beautiful view of a street with a nice house & a tree on one side of the road and a nice row of houses on the other side with the City Hall seen up in the skies as the backdrop. 

Day2: Demo1

What a perfect pick for an onsite painting and how effectively an Artist’s eye sees beautiful things around... Tom quickly set up his easel and started Painting demo of that view. The painting started shaping up and it was an amazing experience for me watching an outside onsite painting. At the end of the demo, it was another quickly painted "masterpiece" by Tom.

Day2: Demo2

Afternoon, we were let free to go around that place, select our own view of interest, settle down and start Painting. I selected the City Hall view, started my Painting but couldn’t finish it. Then, we all walked down to the harbor from there. Tom planned to do another demo at that place. The harbor was so beautiful. There was a little Circus set up next to the harbor lane and some construction was going on. The Circus tents, trucks and a giant wheel was visible through the scaffolding. Tom chose to do a demo of that view. Many of us must have wondered like I did, interesting...a view of the circus through scaffolding. As the Painting started to take shape and colors started to flow on the Paper with wonderful Tom's unique brush strokes, I could only hear many wows. Only Artist can see Art in everything and anything. Again, it was a jaw-dropping experience for me watching that Painting by Tom. It was almost 5pm by that time and we all dispersed to meet at the Mangnolia Beach around 8pm.

I drove early to that location as I didn’t have anything else to do, had my dinner at the House of Pizza, 35 Fuller St. and worked little bit on my unfinished Painting of the City Hall at the beach. I wasn’t happy with the way my painting was coming along and stopped after few minutes. It was very beautiful watching all the colors that the Sun was painting on the skies while going down during Sunset.

As we all gathered around 8pm, the light started to diminish slowly. Tom set up his easel on a rock at the beach and started to Paint the view of a house with a wooden bridge leading into the sea, colorful skies and calm waters. We started feeling the low visibility as it was getting dark quickly. But, Tom continued his painting and finished it in the dark. At the end, somebody had to put a flashlight on for us to see the painting in that darkness. and the evening ended with claps. We had 3 Demo Paintings at 3 different locations done and it was a wonderful experience and a feast of Paintings, for me.

Here is my unfinished painting of the day:

Gloucester City Hall

Day-3
We met in the morning at the Hammond Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_Castle).

Day3: Demo

That was such a beautiful location on the coast, soon after we reached there, we started taking pictures all over. Again, Tom selected the most beautiful view of the castle and did a Demo Painting. It was just an amazing Painting again. The rest of the afternoon, we spread all over, settled down around that Castle and pretty much were Painting the views that we liked. It was again a wonderful experience painting onsite at that beautiful Castle.




The following is my finished work of the day:

Hammond Castle - Watercolors on Paper 16" x 20"

Day-4
The last day of the workshop, we met at the Northeast Art Workshop Studio in Gloucester  in the morning and Tom did another Demo Painting of one other view of yesterday’s Castle from a picture that he took. No surprise, it was an amazing painting again. 

Day4: Demo

That was the last Demo of the 4-day workshop. We all had a group picture, and then few left little early to catch their flights flying back home. The rest of the afternoon, the remaining of us started a new Painting of our choice from pictures of our own. Tom offered a positive critique session, what he called a “surgery session”. We were all asked to choose one of our own paintings that we did during this 4-day workshop for the surgery session and tell Tom the aspect of it that we though would need a surgery. Tom went on doing quick surgeries to our chosen paintings, one after another explaining how it can be improved further from many aspect of a Watercolor Painting. That was a great session and gave me a good insight on getting to know how some corrections can be made after finishing a painting.

Painting in Dark by Tom

At the end, I got a chance to buy one of the Demo Paintings of Tom. I bought the Demo Painting done at the beach in the dark. I was proud to own the original, the very first of such done by Tom in the dark.

It was such a wonderful, memorable, heartful and artful experience for me attending this great workshop by Thomas W. Schaller. Those 4 days of truly living in my dream world of Art with many Artists around including one of the great Artists I have started to admire lately, was an unforgettable experience for me. I am so glad that I took time off and had put in some efforts to make one of my dreams come true- the dream of watching and learning from Masters. I felt like I get to learn how masters paint, how they think and how they see Art in everything.

Kat (Katalene Masella), the organizer of this workshop planned all 4 days filled with much of fun and learning at great many areas in the beautiful Gloucester town of Massachusetts. A great many thanks to Kat for all her very well planned and coordinated efforts.

Tom started the first day of this workshop with this opening quote: “It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.” - Henry David Thoreau, I learned “what to see”. In fact, for me, it was more than learning “what to see”. It was learning from a Watercolor Master on “what to see and how to paint”.

Many many thanks to Tom. I am glad that I have come to know about him. He remains one of the few Masters I admire.

It was a truly memorable experience that I will cherish for rest of my life!

Happy Painting!

Gave a colorful life, finally...

Working with other Artists at the Workshop

It's been almost six months since I started a sketch for this painting at a workshop conducted by a Professional Artist Prity Lathia to our Kalakruti members. It was a very informative session and I learned few basics on what professional Artists look for in an Art, some details on materials etc. We could only do all the needed setup for starting a watercolor painting like taping the watercolor paper to the board, and finishing a quick pencil outline sketch, but had to take the taped and sketched board for painting later at home.

The paper remained just taped to the board for six months, waiting to be removed, very patiently ;) Finally, I have decided to release it by bringing it to a colorful life. I am glad that I did it, at last!

I never used to leave my art works unfinished for a long time. Recently, I've left many behind, unfinished like this. :( I am hoping to finish those all, this year.

Thanks to Mridula for organizing this workshop and Prity Lathia for conducting it, sharing some details on Professionals view of Art, also sharing some of her experience & knowledge with us, and having us started this very familiar flowers commonly seen across India.

Hadn't this workshop happened, I would never have done a painting of these beautiful flowers.

Happy Painting ;)

At various stages of taking life

Materials 

Mediums: Watercolors
Surface: Beinfang Watercolor Paper, 140 lb. 207 GSM (unstretched)
Size: 9" x 12" (23 cm x 30 cm)

Paints: Grumbacher - Violet, Light Red, Winsor & Newton - Opera Rose, Cadmium Red, Olive Green, Hooker's Green, Raw Sienna, Cobalt blue, Rowney Georgian - Burnt Sienna

Brushes: 10 round sable, 00 synthetic Winsor & Newton, and 000 Sable synthetic blend