Winding up the year 2012!

Works from the last quarter of the year!

Some exercises done in the recent past are here! 

Firstly the two light houses from Northern Germany!

List Ost (Sylt)

Arngast lighthouse near Bremerhaven

Jaspar National Park, Canada (done for the October Challenge in Watercolour Studio Forum in WetCanvas)

Passat Vessel in Travemunde, Lubeck, Germany

 

Altesland, Hamburg, Germany

Altesland II, Hamburg, Germany

Boats of Luneberg, Germany

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

HAPPY PAINTING!

 

 

 

Cornell University,Ithaca NY:Bird's view

At least once a year we visit our son at the Cornell University, Ithaca NY. This view of the town with the Cayuga at the distance offers a fascinating view. A difficult subject but I was commissioned to do it, so made a brave attempt!

Watercolour on Arches 300gms Rough paper, 39x38cm

Comments welcome!

One more from Luneberg, Germany

The picturesque city of Luneberg offers many views for a landscape painter! This one is my favourite spot, the view is from the bridge opposite from where I took the photo which is used here.

Arches Rough 300 gms paper used with W&N paints: 30x40 cm

Thanks for viewing, C&C welcome!

Lubeck in winter and in summer!

Lubeck, in winter and in summer!

When I visited the old city of Lubeck, in Northern Germany last year, it was January and in the grip of freezing weather. I made a painting of what I saw at that time. It is here:

Arches 640 Rough 37x48 Cm

I happened to revisit the same scene last month ie in the beginning of August and made a painting of the same scene from a different view. It is here:

Arches 640 Rough 37x48 Cm


C&C are welcome!

Buxtehude, Altesland, Germany

The biggest orchards in Germany are in Altesland near Hamburg. This August we were taken there by a friend to taste cherries and strawberries straight from the orchards. So juicy and succulent they were, we consumed almost a kilo of each!

That is for the aside, this painting is based on the photo taken by me while returning through the town of Buxtehude from the moving car- I was not driving of course!

 

Paper: Canson Fineface 150gms
Size: 50x35cm

Comments and criticisms welcome!

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

With an average of 450,000 passengers a day, the Hamburg Central station is the busiest in Germany and after the Gare du Nord in Paris, the second busiest in Europe. As a landmark of Hamburg, it is rather unsung! All city sightseeing tours take off from here but it never gets mentioned by the tour guides! The imposing architecture forms an impressive backdrop of this cityscape, no wonder I got trapped into painting this complicated structure.

Arches 140lb Rough watercolour paper. 37 x 52 cm Windsor and Newton paints.

Thanks for looking, C and C welcome!

Go Green!

Just narrowly survived doing a green painting! Summer foliage is always too much of a challenge, abandoned the painting twice before retrieving it! This is part of my walking route close to home; The Alster river is just a stream which flows into the city centre and forms the Inner and Outer Lakes of Hamburg!

Arches 140lb Rough, 40x30 cm W and N colours! Thanks for viewing! C and   C welcome!

Birthday Boy - The Ring Bearer!

Here is to the birthday boy - my grand nephew Pranav - who played the role of the Ring Bearer in his uncle's wedding ceremony. (The reference photo was from the wedding photos -courtesy Sebastien Morisot - excellent photographer!). This is a charcoal drawing done on a rough watercolour paper. Pranav is a budding artist himself and had made beautiful greetings cards  for my birthdays in the recent past and has specifically laid down that he will not accept any greeting cards from the market! So I did this hurriedly - his birthday is next week!

Thanks for viewing, have a nice day- and long weekend!

Summer in Hamburg

This unique place in Hamburg is always full of tourists around the lake which is in the city centre! I just narrowed done the painterly portion of this spot just enough to show the bridge, boat , the lake and some summer foliage.Simple design, fresh and pure!

 Done on Arches block of cold-pressed 30x40 cm paper with W@N paints.

Eyeing London!

All eyes are now on London (2012 Olympics)! One gets to see so much of  London these days on the telly! This painting of the 'London Eye' is just an exercise in nostalgia! London Eye in itself is a much hyped up tourist spot of London and in my opinion is a  highly over-rated! Most of the time the London weather does not permit a clear view! Not worth the trouble you go through! Many even call it the 'London Eye(sore)', spoiling the beautiful London skyline! But why I wanted to paint it is because it is just there, a humangus circle object visible from anywhere in London! Also I was inspired by a beautiful photo of that I happened to come across in the Facebook! (Thanks to a friend).

I thought it was an easy subject to do but once started, I realised the numerous spokes posed a big problem! You need a steady hand for those straight lines! Once the painter Charles Evans said  that red wine helps-he was just joking! This painting is alcohol-free!

Arches 140lb Cold Pressed paper 34x40 cm W&N paints. 

Thanks for viewing! Have a nice day!

Hampi- a view of Virupaksha Temple from Hemakuta Hill

Virupaksha temple viewed from Hemakuta Hill

One more painting from our Hampi (Karnataka) visit in February this year.  The Hemakuta hill is strewn with a large number of temples, archways and pavilions. The whole of the hill was fortified with tall wide stonewalls, the ruined remains of which can be still be seen. Virupaksha temple is the oldest and the principal temple in Hampi.This temple is located on the south bank of the river Tungabadra. This area in general has been an important pilgrimage centre for the worshipers of lord Shiva. 

Painted on Arches 300gms Cold Press paper 31x41 cm. Thanks for looking.

You never know what can inspire you!

My new painting (Watercolor)! I was inspired to do this painting, while watching a song from a Tamil movie on YouTube! Strange but this is how one is inspired! I liked the temple location which comes very early in the song and I froze that frame and sketched the scene. Transferred the sketch to painting canvas and finished the painting, of course it took a week.
If any one is interested in the source of the painting, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppj_Ly9tkec
Thanks

Here is the painting, 35x50cm!

 

Early Spring in Hamburg

Sailing boats start appearing in the early spring season onwards on the Outer Alster in Hamburg. It is a very design friendly subject with the vertical sails crossing the horizontal lake bank foliage catching the attention very easily. It was a sunny day and the sky was peaceful and clear!

Arches 300gms Cold Pressed 40cmx30cm. Have a nice day!

A Scene from Luneberg

Luneberg is a town near Hamburg in northern Germany. A very quaint town with old time ambiance with lots of attractive monuments. The horse driven cart takes you through the landmarks of the city. The idea of painting this remained with me for a long time, but only executed now.

  It is done on Hamanuelle 640 gms rouch paper, measuring 53cmx35cm

Thanks for viewing and comments welcome!

The Französischer Dom (French Cathedral) in Gernarmin Market Square, Berlin

Different angle from my previous painting of the same Gendarmin Market Square, this time we have the view of the French Cathedral, seen from the German Cathedral diametrically opposite.

 Arches 640gms rough surface with W&N tube paints, 35cm x 52 cm.

Thanks for viewing!  Comments welcome!

Paintings from our trip to Hampi, Karnataka, India

We spent a wonderful few days last month in Hampi, a place of historical importance in Karnataka, India. The famous Vittala Temple is the most extravagant architectural showpiece of Hampi.The temple was originally built in the 15th century AD. Many successive kings have enhanced the temple campus during their regimes to the present form.

 I made two paintings from photographs I took which are also here to let you  have an idea of the place and to enhance the understanding of the paintings. When I take photos for using them as references for my paintings, I tend to follow some compositional basics so that I do not have to make much changes to them while painting, so much time saved in the composition and design stage! Here are my photos:


This is not the Vittala Temple but the view as you exit the temple from one of the right doors. The tree fascinated me a lot, 'golden arali' tree with an intricately designed trunk.

And here is my painting:

Here is the goddess temple on the northern corner of the temple:

And my rendition of this temple:

Both are done on Arches 300gms Cold Pressed Watercolour paper, 30x40 cm one in portrait and the other in landscape format just using 3 colours only!(Blues-Windsor and Ultramarine Blues, Red-Burnt Sienna and Yellow-Raw Sienna).

Thanks for viewing, comments welcome! Either post them here or email me! murugesan18@gmail.com

The Gendarmin Markt Square in Berlin is full of architectural wonders. The concert hall, the two churches on the sides make it a wonderful place for tourists. This is done as you approach from the main thoroughfare. Magnificent view! I did this on Arches cold pressed 300gms 12x16" paper. Thanks for viewing.

Town Council Rathouse Square, Hamburg

Rathouse Square, Hamburg

Watercolour on paper

32x49 Cm (Unframed)

 Using a photo reference from  June 2011, I painted this cityscape. This painting has been added to the collection of my paintings in the ongoing painting exhibition in Hamburg. Thanks for viewing. May be my next posting shall not be in the near future, at least till I come back from India by end Feb. Thanks for viewing!

Hamburg Painting

A very  busy thoroughfare in the Hamburg city centre (the street is called Ballindam) along the inner lake area is painted here. I purposely avoided any life in the form of rush hour traffic and multitude of human activity to create a contrasting mood. I tried many floated washes of primaries to obtain a granular effect on paper. It is an experiment with pigments and I loved doing it and the end result is to my satisfaction. Hope you all will enjoy looking at it too!

Ballindam, Hamburg

Watercolour on paper

35x53 Cm (Unframed)

53x73 Cm (Framed)

Endless Waiting! Come Soonest!

The wait continues! My plans to do some snow paintings remain unfulfilled, the snow not showing up so far! I had to dig out last year's photos to do this one, again a painting of Tor Haus, just a stone's throw from where we live along the Alster stream. 'Painting snow' is a misnomer, I did not do anything but let the white of the paper represent snow!

Tor Haus, Hamburg

Watercolour on paper (Arches 640 gms Rough)

33x51 cm 

 

Happy Pongal to all!

(due on 15 Jan 2012)

Happy viewing!