The Pine Trees ( Roghi Village, Himachal Pradesh )

“Art is a space in which freedom tests its wings.” Marty Rubin

The ride from Kalpa to Roghi village in Kinnaur valley, Himachal Pradesh is an amazing experience. Today’s soft pastel painting is a small study of what I saw on my way. 

We have been to Himachal Pradesh many a times and road travel helps us to witness some stunning views on the way. While on our way to Roghi Village, I remember having stopped at this place and the “Pine Trees” against the sky looked magnificent. It almost felt as if they were reaching for the sky. 

I have used the twilight shade of Canson Mi Teintes paper. This is a medium toned paper and it goes well for most of my paintings where I have to work on subtle shades of color. However when I intend doing a forest where a major part of the landscape requires dark tones, I go in for either black or dark brown paper. Selection of the right color of paper makes a big difference in the painting.

Reaching for the sky

A soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 4” X 5.5”

For most of my pastel works I use the Mungyo pastels in the beginning to block in the major shapes and later I use the Koh-I-Noor and Gallery pastels. During my final touch up I make use of my recently purchased Sennelier pastels.  

To know about the papers I have been using for my pastel artworks CLICK HERE. ( I have created a detailed post in the past )Thank you for browsing through my artworks and do visit my INSTAGRAM feed to see my latest artworks.

On the way to Roghi village from Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh

Roghi village is 8 kms from Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh. The cliff hugging one way road to this beautiful village has spectacular views. I have painted one such view where we stopped the vehicle and spent a few moments looking around. The depth below was alarming. Some parts of the road do not have any kind of barrier at the edge but the locals from Himachal, I guess are adept at driving in these areas.

The painting below has been done on canson paper using soft pastels of miscellaneous brands.

Deep Below

Soft pastel painting on Canson mi tentes paper

Size 6" x 9"

Roghi village near Kalpa - soft pastel painting

Roghi village is a small village about 8 kms away from Kalpa. The road leading to this village is a cliff hugging one way road with spectacular sights on the way. Once we reach the village we have to park our vehicle outside itself and enter the village on foot. The houses are all built on slopes ( I shall paint one of the traditional houses soon ) and the village is green with trees, barley crops, apple orchards etc.

Given below is a soft pastel painting of a view as seen from Roghi village. Normally I have been using the Tobacco and black paper of Canson Mi tentes, but this time I decided to use a light coloured paper as shown below.

Canson Mi tentes 

Moonstone paper

View from Roghi village

Soft pastel painting on Canson paper

Size 6" x 9"