At Matheran - A Charcoal drawing

“The environment is everything that is not me.” Albert Einstein

When we are out in the wild in the proximity of nature, we come across scenes which capture our attention instantly. The painting actually begins in the mind, the moment we set our eyes on a beautiful scenic landscape.The forest pathway as below was a little away from our Homestay in Matheran and being early morning the sun rays found its way through the dense foliage to create a beautiful contrast of light and shadow on the forest floor.

It is interesting to create a dense forest scene using any medium. With charcoal medium it is mostly about getting the values right. I used kneaded eraser and Staedtler eraser to create the highlights on the pathway and at other places where ever required. Creating thin branches come easy using using any sharp charcoal pencil.

At Matheran

A Charcoal drawing on Favini paper

Size 6"X 7"

I have been working with charcoal medium for very long and I am a little saturated. It is not that I do not love this medium but at times we all need a change. So I am shifting to water colour medium to start with. Will be doing some seascapes and landscapes. No matter what medium, I personally feel that every medium gives me same amount of joy. It is this journey of art which defines me and I am loving every moment of it.

The year 2017 has almost come to an end and I shall be posting soon about some "New year  resolutions" that I have in mind for 2018.

Thank you for browsing through my artworks. 

Mountain view at Matheran

"I would rather die of passion than of boredom." Vincent Van Gogh

Matheran is a very small hill station about 90 kms from Mumbai, in Raigad district of Maharashtra. It is located on the range of Western Ghats at a height of 800 m above sea level. It has been declared an Eco Sensitive Zone by the Government of India and being a vehicle free zone one gets to walk a lot in the laps of mother nature. Apart from dense forest, we get to see beautiful views of mountains and plateaus.

There are 38 designated points in Matheran from where one gets to see breathtaking views of the distant Ghats. To reach each point, it takes roughly forty to forty five minutes of walking through the red muddy pathways. 

I decided to paint this particular scene because it looked very beautiful, had great composition with distant hills and the warm mountains in the foreground. I got to use some of my earthen shades of pastels. There is so much to observe, so much to learn about the colours, the atmospheric perspective, the way landscape transforms with the change of the temperature. 

Mountain view
Soft pastel painting on Canson MT
Size 5"X 7"

I have visited Matheran a lot many times and have a great collection of photographs and sketches. Some of them are pretty complicated with dense forest, shrubs, grasses and sunlight perforating through the foliage and it needs a little analyzing and understanding before I set off to start them, but eventually I plan to do each and every one of them. One step at a time. 

I love painting and try doing some work on a daily basis. I can never get bored of my art, however when I do a particular medium for a very long time it does lead to a little saturation. At such times I get into my charcoal and other mediums which refreshes my mind instantly.

Through my blog I get to share my thought process in creating each work, my techniques, my experimenting and exploring and it is fun connecting with so many artists around the world. 

Thanks for all your support and do leave a comment so that I may know what you feel about my works.

A morning at Matheran - A soft pastel painting

"Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else." Leonardo Da Vinci

Greens are still a challenge. Every time I create a landscape, I question myself regarding the green. Should I use a warm green or a cool green? What colour should I put next to it. Then there is the source of light and the shadows and so many other factors to considered before I proceed further.

By now I know the individual shades of greens that I have in my collection. There is a favorite mid tone green in Camlin, a blue green in Kohinoor, the very dark in Mungyo and so on. It is important to know the colours and feel connected to them. Despite having many shades in blues and greens, I constantly feel the need to have more of them. You never find the right shade when you are looking for one. Green is always a dilemma.

The soft pastel painting below has been inspired by an early morning scene from Matheran, a beautiful hill station close to Mumbai. The sun rays lit up the foliage as it perforated through the space between the wild growth on either sides. I am always looking for a scene like this where in I get to see the marvels of nature. The light and shadow play, creating magic in the atmosphere around you. This scene was pretty challenging, nevertheless I enjoyed doing it.

A morning at Matheran

Soft pastel painting on Canson MT

Size 5"X 7"

Matheran has been declared an Eco Sensitive Zone by the Union Environment Ministry and private vehicles are not allowed. The place is very green and has some very promising views for artists, photographers as well as nature lovers.  

On my recent visit to Karnala Bird Sanctuary, I managed to create a few Plein Air sketches using my limited soft pastel palette. I will post the images soon.

Thanks for browsing through my works.

Soft Pastel Workshop - Matheran Landscape

The soft pastel painting below is a demo work that I did recently in my Two Days Soft Pastel workshop. It is with reference to my photograph from Matheran Hill station which has been a quick getaway for us on many different occasions. 

The muddy pathway

Soft pastel painting on Canson paper

Size 6" X 8"

When I do a demo work like the one above my aim is to simplify the scene by looking at the general shapes of elements and the colours. The foliage is painted as one big mass and then a few leaves are added to give a suggestion of leaves. The basic idea is to get the participants started with a complicated forest painting and to understand the step by step procedure that I follow.

If it were not for the demo I would have spent a minimum of three hours on this work, getting to the fine details in the foreground. I have used the same photograph to create a charcoal painting in one of my Two Days Charcoal Workshop. Will be posting the image soon.

Early morning at Matheran - Soft pastel painting

A morning walk through the muddy pathways of Matheran ( Hill station close to Mumbai ), the sunlight diffusing through the dense foliage, lighting up some parts of the forest floor.

The more I paint NATURE, the more it inspires me. Everything out there seems so perfect. Since vehicles are not allowed in this hill station, there are no permanent roads and everytime one sets out, one has to walk through some muddy pathway which has trees lined up all around. In addition there are rocks, slopes, twigs broken branches which all add up to make for a good composition.

Somewhere beyond

Size 8" X 12"

©Manju Panchal

Matheran - a tree in soft pastels

This particular tree with lot of greenery in the background was a bit of a challenge and I almost gave it up midway but having put in efforts it is not easy to abandon too. Hence keeping it aside for a day, I restarted the same painting next morning with fresh mind and with the intention of completing it. 

It happens that in the process of doing a painting we realise that certain things could have been differently with respect to adding colours or shadows etc. This very realisation is the learning lesson that gets carried forward to the next painting where we implement the knowledge to avoid the mistakes made in the past.

Solitary tree

Soft pastel painting on Canson paper

This soft pastel painting is from a reference photograph taken at Matheran, a beautiful hill station close to Mumbai. We were there last December for a short holiday.

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