Annual sale at Art Lounge, Art Stationery shop at Churchgate, Mumbai

"Painting is by nature a luminous language." Robert Delaunay

Art lounge is an art stationery store at Churchgate, Mumbai and they are currently having their Annual sale which ends on 16th of April, 2017. I went there couple of days back to buy my soft pastel and charcoal products. Since they have their sale catalog online it helped me to shortlist the products.

I am listing a few things that I purchased this year. Until last year I was working more on black coloured Canson MT paper. But my recent landscapes on twilight shade turned out equally good. Therefore I added a few sheets of mid tone Canson MT sheets.

My final list of products that I purchased are as follows

• A few Canson Mi Teintes sheets. ( Mostly mid tone colours )
• General Charcoal and General white pastel pencil.
• Few Kohinoor Toison Dor pastel pencils
• Kneaded erasers
• Kohinoor graphite pencils
• Canson Bristol XL sheets ( Purchased this to try out my graphite works )

• Strathmore Toned Gray ( Pad of 50 sheets ) I have used the Strathmore black paper and loved it a lot for my portrait works. Therefore decided to buy this one to try out my charcoal and pastel portraits on it.

As with any other artist, I already have a big collection of papers, pencils, brushes and other products at home. Therefore I did not have to purchase as much as I did in the previous years. 

I am excited about the two new papers that I have purchased namely Strathmore and Canson Bristol. I have read a lot of good reviews about them so am confident that it will all work out good.

Apart from Art Lounge, the other Stationery stores that I frequently visit are Himalaya Stationery Mart  and Art Station. 

Sketching a leaf using charcoal and white pastel pencil

I work a lot with Canson Mi Teintes paper. Apart from soft pastels, its surface is ideal for charcoal and white pastel sketching. I buy these sheets in bulk and then cut out the size as required, which leads to lots of leftover pieces in different sizes. Hence I use these "Leftover cutout pieces" for my different experimental and study works. I keep them all safe in a folder so that I can retrieve it as and when required.

Using one such small piece of beige coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper I created a leaf along with its shadow as seen below. It is a simple dry leaf folded and raised at one end. However due to the drying up process it has folds at several places. This leads to dramatic shadow formation at the surface which gives one the opportunity to create the folds within the leaf. It is a small sketch but a great source of learning experience.

In the shadow

Charcoal and white pastel pencil sketch on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 4.5" X 6"

This is my third sketch in the " Leaf "  series. I created two of them earlier. CLICK HERE to view one of them.

 A beautiful quote.

" There is no greater harm than that of time wasted." Michelangelo

Willow charcoal sketching of a beach at Bamboo island ( Near Phi Phi Leh )

In December 2014, I used willow charcoal to create a few study works on cartridge paper. 

It worked pretty well in combination with charcoal pencils and the plan was to use it on 

professional acid free paper some day to create more permanent artworks. However in the 

course of time it never happened and this project went into the " Waitlist" category ie to be 

done on some other day at some other time. In the meanwhile I kept myself busy with other

mediums and subjects.

Willow charcoal

Two study works using

willow charcoal and other charcoal pencils.

Created on cartridge paper

( Old works )

This week was the perfect opportunity to use my willow charcoal once again as I had just 

completed my charcoal workshop and all my charcoal sketching tools were on my workplace. 

Hence I decided to create a charcoal sketch of a simple beach scene inspired by a view at the Bamboo Island which was part of our Phi Phi Leh Tour. ( Thailand ). Bamboo island is

one of the most beautiful National Park island in Phuket.

This serene beach had the very basic elements like sky, water and trees/foliage. What I loved 

about the composition was the shadows on the beach and the scattered rocks.

In the shadows

Charcoal sketching on Fabriano Academia paper

Size 6.5" X  7.5"

Beautiful Quotation

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil."

By Balthus  ( 1908 - 2001 ) Polish French modern artist.

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

Creating a forest using willow charcoal and few other pencils

A demo work done during a recent Charcoal painting workshop referring to a photograph by
Vidya Alange Bhandary who writes a beautiful BLOG based on her travel experiences.

I came across Vidya's  site when I was looking for travelogues to Himachal. Vidya has posted
some great photographs on her blog. I have taken her permission to use her photographs for
my reference painting. This particular painting is from Coorg and I immediately felt the
connection as I have been to this beautiful place.

Through the forest.

Charcoal sketching on Fabriano Academia paper

Size 5.5" x 7"

Beautiful quote

" Painting is just another way of keeping a diary." Pablo Piccaso

Blogging is in a way like a diary of one's artworks. The day to day painting and learning experiences all get recorded through the postings. If it were not for the blog that I started, I would have perhaps been doing my art but at my own pace and not with great amount of focus.