A Missed Opportunity...

Girl with Pot

As life moves on, we keep collecting few "Missed Opportunities" here and there. When we look back, there are certainly many things in life that we feel about like - "Huh...I should have done that...". An Artist is no exception and will have many such missed opportunities.

Life cannot be rewound, but certain "Missed Opportunities" in life can be caught again in future. Every missed opportunity will be an opportunity again in life- when it knocks the door one more time in future, and once knocked, only if the door is opened. Once caught in future, the missed opportunity gives an opportunity to give our best.

Pencil sketch done 20 years ago

This painting is based on one of my few "Missed Opportunities" in the past. I did a pencil sketch about 20 years ago, to start a Watercolor Painting. However, the ketch never turned into a Painting. My Art Collection is my Treasure for ideas and catching those "Missed Opportunities".

When I opened my treasure yesterday looking for ideas for a new Painting, the pencil sketch once again knocked my heart. This time, I am happy to say that, I smiled and opened the door, caught the opportunity and turned that Pencil Sketch into a Watercolor Painting. I am sure, I wouldn't have done any better than this,  if I had done 20 years ago.

Every opportunity cannot be caught at the first time. Life may contain "Missed Opportunities", but life itself cannot become a "Missed Opportunity" with many regrets left on the list of "Missed Opportunities".

"Left is an opportunity, benefit from it!" - Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)

Happy Painting ;)

Materials 

Title: Girl with Pot
Mediums: Watercolors

Surface: Arches Watercolor Paper, 140 lb cold press
Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

Paints: Winsor & Newton Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red, Ultramarine Violet, Opera Rose, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Turquoise Light, Permanent Sap Green, Cadmium Lemon and Neutral Tint

Brushes: Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 0, 3, 5 and 8

Saraswati 2- The Hindu Goddess of Art & Knowledge...

Saraswati - The Goddess of Art & Knowledge

With all the respect for Art & Knowledge, my series of Hindu Gods & Goddesses continues with this second painting of Saraswati - The Goddess of Art & Knowledge. Here is my first one.

This is the very first time I tried Arches Art Board. I am very happy with my efforts and the outcome of this particular painting. Of course, my dream painting of the Goddess of Art is yet to come...

Happy Painting ;)

Materials 

Title: Saraswati - The Hindu Goddess of Art & Knowledge...
Mediums: Watercolors

Surface: Arches Watercolor Art Board
Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

Paints: Holbein Artist Watercolor (HWC) Yellow ochre, Winsor & Newton Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red, Ultramarine Violet, Opera Rose, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Turquoise Light, Permanent Sap Green, Cadmium Lemon and Neutral Tint

Brushes: Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1, 3, 5 and 8

Bhagavadgeeta...

Bhagavadgeeta

Bhagavadgeeta - based on a picture I took on Tirumala hills.

Happy Painting ;)

Materials 

Title: Bhagavadgeeta
Mediums: Watercolors

Surface: Artistico Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 140 lb Cold Press
Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

Paints: Holbein Artist Watercolor (HWC) Lavender, Yellow ochre, Winsor & Newton Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange, Cobalt Turquoise Light, Permanent Sap Green and Neutral Tint

Brushes: Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1, 3 and 5

On any given Saturday morning....

Girl Reading

Somedays, we feel like doing something, but we don't know what to do and do not want the day go by doing nothing. I was blank this morning on what Painting to start. Couldn't get my mind setup to do anything in particular.

On any given Saturday mornings like this, I turn to my "paper-clip-collection" and pick something that appeals me to work on.

Today's pick is this "Girl Reading a Book". It was a very quick painting and every Painting teaches me something.

Happy Painting ;)

Materials 

Title: Girl reading a book
Mediums: Watercolors
Surface:  Bienfang Watercolor Paper, 140 lb
Size: 9" x 12" (23 cm x 31 cm)

Paints: Winsor & Newton Vandyke Brown, Quinacridone Gold, Cadmium Lemon, Hookers Green Cobalt Blue, Ultramerine Violet and Neutral Tint

Brushes: Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1, 3 and 5

Saraswati - The Hindu Goddess of Art & Knowledge...

Saraswati - The Goddess of Art & Knowledge

With al the respect for Art and Knowledge, I finally did Saraswati - The Hindu Goddess of Art and Knowledge in watercolors.

Not a coincidence, but this comes in as the very first Painting for one of my dream subjects in Painting - Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

Enjoy the joy of Painting ;)

Materials 

Title: Saraswati - The Hindu Goddess of Art & Knowledge
Mediums: Watercolors
Surface: Artistico Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 140 lb Cold Press
Size: 11" x 14" (28 cm x 35 cm)

Paints: Winsor & Newton Vandyke Brown, Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna and Neutral Tint

Brushes: Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1, 3 and 5

Portrait of my Son - Bhuvan...భువనగిరి

Portrait of Bhuvan

Portraits are my favorite painting subjects. This portrait of my Son, Bhuvan is based on a picture that he took in his recent visit to India with a baby goat that was born on that day. I enjoyed doing his portrait as much as he enjoyed holding the baby goat on his shoulder ;)

I think this is one of my best. Those who have seen Bhuvan can find the accurate details of his features and feelings in this painting.

Enjoy the joy of Painting ;)

Materials 

Title: BhuvanaGiri (భువనగిరి)
Mediums: Watercolors
Surface: Artistico Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 140 lb Cold Press
Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

Paints: Holbein Artist Watercolor (HWC) Lavender, Winsor & Newton Vandyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange, Cobalt Turquoise Light and Neutral Tint

Brushes: Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1, 3 and 5

The Journey through a Colorful Day in Life...

Fall Foliage

Living in New England area, we experience colorful fall around this time of the year. If we drive up, North of Boston to New Hampshire, Vermont or even Maine, all the places look even more colorful with dramatic changing of colors.

Though we have been planning to go North to see fall colors for many years, it's only this year we could make it. I am glad we could do it!

Drive to White Mountains

Drive to White Mountains

Drive to White Mountains

Drive to White Mountains

Drive to White Mountains

It was such a beautiful sunny Sunday after a couple of rainy days. The temperatures warmed up little bit into 60s. We started to drive early in the morning and reached White mountains area by 10am. The  fresh morning sunlight enriched colors and the nature looked more crisp than ever to me. It was such a colorful pleasure driving through not-that-busy roads on a calm Sunday morning with beautiful and colorful sceneries all around.

Cathedral Ledge

Cathedral Ledge

Cathedral Ledge

Cathedral Ledge

Cathedral Ledge

We stopped at the North Conway Information Center to get some information about interesting places around. It was a beautiful town. We drove to the Cathedral Ledge and walked through the beautiful woods up to the mount cliff. The views of valleys from there were just beautiful.

Diana's Bath

Diana's Bath

Diana's Bath

We also went to Diana's Bath and it was such a calm and beautiful waterfalls through rocks. There I could see the best Artist in the world at work- the Nature, painting fall colors in water through the reflection of light.

It was an easy walk in the woods, on the rocks at the water falls and it was a very cool spot, not to be missed.

Road to the Sky

As it says "Road to the Sky"- was a scary drive up to the Mount Washington Summit.

At the bottom of the Mount Washington, the wide area surrounded by mountains was full of fall colors. It was such a beautiful treat to anybody's eyes!

White Mountains

White Mountains

White Mountains

White Mountains

There were two options to go up to the summit: guided tour, and drive-your-own-car. We didn't hesitate to go for drive-your-own-car, up to the summit. We just went for it. That was the most deadliest and scariest drive I ever had experienced. The Road to the Summit was just a two-car, two-way road with barely any space left on both sides with cars going in both the directions, up and down the mountain. The mountain side of the road had a car-tire-wide naturally formed ditches and rocks. The other side mostly had just deep slopes.

Lower half of the way up, driving was ok except the feeling of driving at the heights, as mostly the slopes were covered with trees. The higher half of the drive was the most scary drive with just deep slopes inches away from the road. There was a gravel road for about a mile and it was the deadliest of all. Driving down the mountain was as scary as driving up the mountain.

White Mountains

Mount Washington Summit

Though very scary and deadly, it was a thrilling experience at the end. If I ever have to drive up to the summit again, I will simply opt out ;)

I brought home with me, many memories and many pictures taken all over the places; hoping to turn some into beautiful paintings.

Typically, a day with 7 hours of driving ends very tiring. But, this colorful day was certainly untiring, memorable and beautiful.

Life is a blank canvas. One should try to paint as many colorful days as possible on it.

Happy colorful days of life ;)

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!

Natyanjali-4: Indian Classical Dance...

Indian Classical Dance

Natyanjali - the Series of Indian Classical Dance goes on...Happy to share this fourth Painting of this series.

Materials 

Mediums: Watercolors
Surface: Artistico Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 140 lb Cold Press
Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

Paints: Holbein Artist Watercolor (HWC) Cadmium Red,
Winsor & Newton Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Gold, Cobalt Blue and Neutral Tint

Brushes: Raphail Mop 8, Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1 and 5

"బాపు" గారి దివ్య స్మృతికి సభక్తికంగా...

కొంటె బొమ్మల "బాపు"

"బాపు" గారి బొమ్మలని అనుకరించాలని ప్రయత్నించని, గీత మీద ఆసక్తి ఉన్న తెలుగు వ్యక్తి ఉండడు, ఉండబోడు. ఆయన మన మధ్య భౌతికంగా ఇక లేరు అన్న ఆలోచన తెలుగు వారి మనసున ఎన్నటికీ మింగుడు పడదు. తెలుగు అక్షరానికీ, తెలుగు దనానికీ, తెలుగు బొమ్మకీ, ఆ ముక్కోటి దేవుళ్ళకి సైతం తన గీతలతో ఎనలేని వన్నెని తెచ్చి, ఇచ్చి, "కళా ప్రపూర్ణ" కి పరిపూర్ణమైన అర్ధాన్నీ, రూపాన్నీ ఇచ్చిన "బాపు" గారి మీద అభిమానాన్నీ, భక్తినీ మాటల్లోనూ, బొమ్మల్లోనూ ఎంత చాటుకున్నా తనివితీరదు.

ఆయన "దివ్య స్మృతికి" సభక్తికంగా...

Materials 

Mediums: Watercolors
Surface: Artistico Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 140 lb Cold Press
Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

"బాపు" గారికి కన్నీటి వీడ్కోలు...

Sri Bapu

"తెలుగు అక్షరానికి వంపుల సోయగం అద్ది
తెలుగుదనానికి రేఖల నిండుదనం నింపి
తెలుగు ముంగిట ముత్యాల ముగ్గులు వేసి
తెలుగు మదిన చెరగని రేఖలనెన్నో గీసి
ప్రాణ మిత్రుని చేర పయనమేగిన "బాపు"

గారికి కన్నీటి వీడ్కోలు..."

-గిరి

One of Bapu's drawings from my hand in 1982

"బాపు" గారి రేఖలని అలానే గీయాలని ప్రయత్నం చెయ్యని
తెలుగు చిత్రకారుడు ఉండడు, ఎన్నటికీ ఉండబోడు...

చిన్ననాట 1982, స్కూల్ లో నేను చేసిన అలాంటి ప్రయత్నం
ఈ రోజు "బాపు" గారి నీ ఆయన రేఖలనీ గుర్తు చేసుకుంటూ
ఆయన ఆత్మకు శాంతి కలగాలని మనసారా కోరుకుంటూ...
కన్నీటితో...
-గిరి

An Indian Festival full of Art - Vinayaka Chavithi

Hand-made Lord Ganesha made of Natural Clay

Ganesh Chaturthi a.k.a. Vinayaka Chavithi is an Indian Festival celebrated all over India. In fact, this is probably the only festival that special idols of Lord Ganesha are made or bought and worshipped for many days. The idols are immersed in lakes and rivers on the last day of the festival.

The idols are made in great many forms...there are no restrictions or limits to one's imagination of creating an idol of Lord Ganesha. Recently, making idols with eco friendly material has been gaining popularity in and outside India due to increasing environment pollution.

I also celebrated this year's festival by making an Idol from natural clay. Sculpture being another form of Art that I have been aspiring to do since my childhood, this festival gives me a chance to test my aspiration. This is my 5th year of celebrating this festival by making an idol of Lord Ganesha.

Happy sculpting and Happy Vinayaka Chavithi ;)

Vinayaka Chavithi Pooja