Stepping into 2018, a new beginning.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."Albert Einstein

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018.

The year 2017 has come to an end and this is my first post of the year. It was an interesting year with respect to my art journey and its time to share some of my favorite works that I managed to create in different mediums.

I am extremely happy that I could devote some of my time for my water colour passion and went on to create several landscapes and seascapes. It has been a struggle, trying to understand all about the different techniques involved in creating a single water colour painting and while doing so I am exploring, experimenting and learning a lot. The learning experience that comes with the process of painting is of utmost significance to me as it helps me grow as an artist.

Water colour paintings created in 2017

Find below few "Portraits" that I tried out on Strathmore and  Canson MT paper. Both these papers have great textures and I plan to work with them for my future works too.

Portrait drawings created in 2017

Some of my personal favorites in soft pastel paintings that I created in the beginning months of last year. 

Soft Pastel paintings created in 2017

In conclusion 2017 was a great year and I am grateful to all those who have been supporting me in my journey of art. My family, friends, my art workshop participants, my blog and Instagram followers, a very big THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for appreciating my art and motivating me to further continue working with same enthusiasm.

Thanks a lot for stopping by and browsing through my works. Looking forward to reading your comments. 

Johnathan Harris - An artist from USA

"Colors speak all languages." Joseph Addison

My today's post is about an artist from USA, Johnathan Harris. I recently came across his stunning vibrant artworks in INSTAGRAM as well as FINE ART AMERICA. The landscape paintings by Johnathan Harris are visually stunning, unique and very inspiring. He has his unique original style and I am fascinated by his landscape interpretations. His color palette has a great appeal and you get naturally drawn towards all his works.

In his Artist's statement Johnathan Harris says" Creating artwork is my passion, a refuge from the modern world, a time for me to reflect and express; an absolute necessity for me to feel complete. I try to give the viewer a window into a perception of a reality in which I find solace. I prefer to focus on Southwestern landscapes and European landscapes not only for the naturally beautiful compositions, the colors and endless inspiration but also because of the effect of the seasonal changes and variations due to light in those magical parts of the world."
( COURTESY: Johnathan Harris )

Posted below are some of the artworks by Johnathan Harris which are my personal favorites and to view all his works you can visit his website jhfineart.com . 

Through his landscape paintings, Johnathan says, he has tried to capture the sensations and revelations that he experiences when he is in the in the midst of nature. His works are greatly influenced by his love for nature.

I am grateful today for being able to do what I love doing most. ie "Drawing and Painting". I am also grateful to interact with other artists around the world whose works inspire and motivate me to continue my passion. Having a blog is helping me to share the works of artists whose works I admire and I am looking forward to creating more of such posts.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you too have enjoyed the beautiful works by Johnathan Harris. 

Watercolour Artist - Sadhu Aliyur

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Instagram is new to me and I have started posting my works on this social media quite recently. Blogging is about my art journey wherein I share my art, my techniques, my experiments and my general thoughts and feelings about creating my art. Instagram on the other hand is a faster way of uploading my work and most important, all my works can be seen in a gallery format. In conclusion, as an artist, I am enjoying being a part of Instagram.

Through Instagram I am getting to meet many different artists from India as well as all around the world. Some of them have inspired me in a lot many ways and I have decided to create a post about each one of them. Today I am posting about a great water colour artist Mr Sadhu Aliyur.

Mr Sadhu Aliyur is a Kerala based water colour artist. His finely honed skills, astute observation and refined aesthetic sensibilities help him capture the essence of a scene in a few strokes. He makes the common look uncommon. He transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

In his hands, nature comes alive in all its richness, textures, hues and forms. With a wash here and a dab there, the overwhelming beauty of the monsoon, skies and rain drenched dwellings are frozen for all time for the eyes of the connoisseur. Read more about him.....CLICK HERE.
( COURTESY: SADHU ALIYUR )

All works created by Mr Sadhu Aliyur are absolutely vibrant and stunning. His thoughts, feelings, conviction, and many moods seem to come alive with bare minimal strokes. The simple landscape scenes capture the mood and atmosphere so well. I have been following his works for quite some time now and decided to share some of them with you.

Check out his other works on his official website.

Each and every painting by Mr Sadhu Aliyur is so unique in itself, be it a still life, portrait or landscape, that you can't help but fall in love with it. 

Follow my latest works and techniques on INSTAGRAM , where in I post my latest artworks regularly. 

Thanks for browsing through my blog.🙏

Milind Mulick and his water colour paintings

Milind Mulick - An artist who inspires me.

Art brings happiness into my life. To paint on a regular basis I need to stay motivated and this motivation at times comes from browsing through the works of other artists. I admire a lot many artists and hence, through my blog I am making an attempt to share some beautiful works by world famous artists. My last post was on Leonardo Da Vinci, a master artist from the Renaissance period. Today I am posting about a renowned water colour artist from Pune, Milind Mulick.

Milind Mulick is the son of a well known illustrator and painter, Mr Pratap Mulick. He has been drawing since the age of five and started painting water colour landscapes at the age of thirteen.
After completing his degree in Engineering, later in life he shifted to his passion art, creating stunning artworks mostly in water colour medium.

Milind Mulick's paintings are in the collection of many private individuals and a few Corporate houses in India, USA, Europe as well as Japan and Singapore. Vibrancy of colours and an ability to capture the essence of the subject are the hallmark of his paintings.

( COURTESY:  JYOTSNAPRAKASHAN , www.milindmulick.com )

I am posting below some of the water colour paintings by Milind Mulick which are my personal favorites. The cityscapes, the seascapes, the fields and a portrait work.

Jyotsana Prakashan has uploaded some videos where you can watch the water colour paintings being created by this great artist.

If you wish to read one of Milind Mulick's interviews which was taken by a Russian artist Konstantin Sterkhov , CLICK HERE. 

I recently happened to purchase a book by Milind Mulick, on a very challenging subject "Perspective". Be it nature or portrait drawing, knowing perspective helps a great deal. The book has all the information required in a very simplified manner and I refer to it as and when required.

You can find more of his books on sites like AMAZON.

A book on Perspective by Milind Mulick.

Thank you for visiting my blog. 

Thumbnail sketches - study works for future paintings

After having done a couple of soft pastel paintings on different subjects, it is time to shortlist
the next few paintings to be done. For me it all starts with "Thumbnail sketches". These days I
create a couple of them after a careful analysis with respect to composition, colours and values.
Once my thumbnails are done, I pin them up on the flannel board next to my workplace so that
I can have a clear view of them all day along.

After several views, I start the preliminary painting process in the mind itself. It's like I am working on the different possible techniques which I can apply to go ahead with a particular painting. All of my thumbnail sketches do not necessarily get converted into the final art piece. It's only a selected few. The ones that start speaking to me and I can feel the connection.

Given below is the collective image of three different sketches that I just completed using the soft pastel medium. All are "Sea based subjects" my all time favorite.

Thumbnail sketches 

created on Canson Mi Teintes paper.

Size 4" X 5"

I am posting an old image which shows how my ART BOARD looks like with a display of all

my thumbnail sketches. Many of the sketches as in the board below finally saw the light of day

as I converted them into bigger pieces of artwork. 

Creating thumbnail sketches is a lot of fun work as I do them very freely and loose manner.

So its done without any fear or inhibition and many a times a small little work looks like a 

masterpiece to me and I take a quick decision to refer to it and go ahead with my bigger artwork.

I also call these small works as "Study works" as they help me to learn a lot. It is an exercise

in "Experimentation" wherein I get to evolve my technique by trying out new ideas and theories.

I have done several posts on "THUMBNAIL SKETCHES" and to view all of them you can

go to the search column at the right column of the BLOG.

Back to ART and BLOGGING after a long break.

It feels good to be back at art and blogging after a long break. I have been busy travelling and

attending to a lot more personal work.

After a break, I always restart with my artwork with charcoal medium. It is almost like 

getting into basics once again. The tonal value study, and use of just few tools makes it a lot 

easier too. I am doing a tree trunk with exposed roots on toned paper ( Trying out a new

colour this time instead of the regular grey ) which will complete by tomorrow.

In the meantime I am posting a soft pastel work which I completed last month but did not get 

time to post it. It is with reference to a beautiful photograph taken by my friend's niece at 

Florence falls, Melbourne. The photograph reminded me so much of Langkawi, which had 

similar rocks and atmosphere. 

At Florence Falls, Melbourne
Soft pastel painting on Canson paper
Size 6" X 8"

Art Lounge, the art stationery shop at Churchgate is holding its annual sale from 17th of this

month and this will continue till may be the 16th of next month. I visit Art Lounge every year

for my Canson Mi Teintes paper which I use a lot for my soft pastel work. Unfortunately it is

not available at ART STATION which is a shop close to my place.

Like any other artist I have a big collection of art materials at my place be it brushes, pastels,

charcoals or papers. Despite this fact I would still visit the sale for the following

General soft charcoal pencil

General soft white pastel pencil

Canson Mi Teintes paper (  Grey and black shade )

Koh-I-Noor individual soft pastels ( Vandyke brown, few greens and blues )

Water soluble graphite ( I have recently started using this and it is lot of fun )

Canson water colour paper ( Want to try it out )

Canson c a grain paper ( I use this for my charcoal works )

General charcoal powder ( Have read good reviews about it so may buy it this time )

Certain things that I buy is a one time investment. For example the charcoal powder by General

comes in a big bottle so I may not have to buy it for a long long time. This year, Art Lounge is

also selling some premium quality water colour brushes like ESCODA, Winsor and Newton etc

so I may have a look around at them too.

The charcoal powder jar by

General

Two still life paintings - two different mediums

I recently created two still life paintings using two different mediums namely soft pastels and water colour.

1. The steel bowl with garlic placed at the side, done using Mungyo and KOH-I-NOOR soft pastels on black coloured rough textured chart paper.
2. Ripe pear with tiny brown patches on it, done on handmade paper using Camel artists quality water colour tubes.

Two still life paintings

Steel bowl with garlic at the side done in soft pastels

and 

A pear done in water colours.

Creating small works are more like doing "Study works". They help you get a better understanding about the form, shape, shadow etc.

Thanks for visiting my Blog and do visit my INSTAGRAM page to see my other artworks.