At Dalhousie - Charcoal landscape on toned paper

"To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles." Mary Davis

Today's charcoal and white pastel drawing on Canson MT paper is inspired by a scene from Dalhousie, a beautiful hill station in Himachal Pradesh. This road was leading us to our hotel and the entire pathway was lined up by tall coniferous trees and variety of other miscellaneous dense growth on either sides. 

Being a resident of a crowded city like Mumbai, I never get to witness such a sight and hence enjoy every moment of it while I am out there. Nature has so much to offer us and the least we can do is to take care of the environment so as to preserve it for posterity. Drawing and painting places that I have visited in the past gives me immense pleasure. It is my way of sharing the beauty and magic of nature with the rest of the people who have either been there or yet to visit.    

Pathway in the woods

Charcoal and white pastel pencil drawing on Canson MT paper

Size 5" X 7"

This is first of my landscape forest paintings on toned paper. I am quite happy with the outcome and may go on to create some more in this series. Today I removed my soft pastel collection and sat cleaning and organizing them so that I can restart some colored works soon. I love charcoal medium too but working with the same medium for too long can lead to saturation and then a little change refreshes the mind. So keep looking for some new works which I shall be posting soon.

Thank you all for the support that you have provided me. My blog has now crossed 78,000 pageviews and it would not have been possible without the support of the viewers. Thank you all for the same. If you like my works and techniques do visit my INSTAGRAM page to view all my works together in Gallery format.

Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary - A soft pastel painting

"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

Blessed with enchanting beauty, Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh is built on and around five hills. Eight kilometres from here, is a beautiful wildlife sanctuary, the Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary which is covered with thick forests of pine and deodhar trees. The undergrowth in the forest is well developed and the view all around is mesmerising. The forest has well laid out trekking trails for those who are the adventurous kind. I was more interested in walking around and soaking in the beauty of the surroundings.

The soft pastel painting of one of the scenes that captured my heart is as below. I have also added images of the step by step technique that I followed before I reached the final stage.  

Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary

Soft pastel painting on Canson MT paper

Size 6" X 8"

Step 1. Basic outline and adding a few colours

Step 2. Simplifying the shapes keeping in mind the perspective

Step 3. Almost all the colours are laid down and only

detailing left for the final stage.

To know more about the papers that I use for my pastel artworks you can CLICK HERE.  I have not created a post on the pastel brands that I use, but plan to do so very soon. I have a miscellaneous collection that I purchased over the past five years. By now I know the individual shades of each brand that I use the most and hence I have created a palette where in I organise all my pastels together ie a mix of different brands. The turquoise blue that I use in ocean is not available in the Koh-I-Noor Toison Dor and similarly the violet shade which is predominant in most of my works is a part of Mungyo collection. In conclusion, every brand has its own value and I enjoy using them together as it works well with my artworks.

Thanks a lot for browsing through my artworks.

Dalhousie - A soft pastel painting

A beautiful quotation that I came across recently so decided to share it with others. 
"One eye sees, the other feels." Paul Klee

Dalhousie, is a beautiful hill station in Chamba district in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. It is situated on five hills and has an elevation of 1970 metres above sea level. The place is blessed with enchanting beauty and is a must visit destination for all nature lovers, artists and photographers.

While in Dalhousie, we stayed in a hotel from where we had a direct view of the majestic snow capped mountains and pine trees. Referring to one of the photographs taken there, I painted this scene in soft pastel medium. 

At Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh

Soft Pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 5" X 7"

I have created a series of paintings on some memorable scenes from Himachal Pradesh. The state is so beautiful that you cannot help falling in love with it. I have visited Himachal on three different occasions and wish to go there many more times. Our last visit was to Spiti valley and back then we had planned to cover Lahaul district as well, but owing to bad weather could not do so. Sometime soon we will plan out a trip there too. 

Blogging is great but if someone wants to see all the paintings in the "Gallery" format it becomes a little difficult and one has to laboriously follow the "Blog Archive" which can be time consuming. Therefore as suggested by friends and my younger art workshop participants I have decided to go one step further and upload my past works on Instagram. It is taking time but eventually I will try and put up all my favourite works together.

When I get time at hand, the first thing that I want to do is paint. However painting at a stretch for long number of hours can exhaust the mind. During such times I take to photographing my art, editing, blogging etc. During my initial years I struggled, as I love painting more than blogging. But with time I have learnt to create a balance between all my activities.

Do you blog on a regular basis? Would love to hear from you through your comments. Do write about your art endeavors, your likes, dislikes etc. 

Thanks for browsing through my blogposts.