Temple goes to West Coast

Thanks to my facebook  id 'muruarts' created by Srich and his hard sell, two of my paintings are crossing the seas to the West Coast of the USA! Raga and Greg, are going to be the proud owners of the following paintings, which though are already sold, have been recreated for them. In my fourth attempt at the Shore Temple, I arrived at a close proximity to the original version, but I like the other three attempts also which convey stronger atmospheric moods.

The Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

The other painting, 'Winter in Pirohova'  did not tax me too much, the second attempt coming good. Lesson learnt-recreation is not easy, even your own paintings-water colour is a great leveler! 

Winter in Pirohova, Ukraine

Thanks for looking! Comments welcome!

Sunset in God's Own Country

This one is from Kerala, God's own country. I had a photo of the coconut trees and some boats in the backwaters. I wanted to add some drama by making it a sunset scene, so that I can play with colours. The distant row of trees is a device to give depth to the scene. The horizontal boats balancing the vertical trees. The coconut foliage was the difficult part of the painting. I enjoyed doing the water and the reflections. Hope you will like the painting-done on Arches rough surface, half sheet.

  Comments welcome, or just let me know your reactions just with a click.

Thanks for looking!

Village Street

Trying to get out of a painter's block! Was unable to focus on anything! Forced myself to do something not too demanding to break the deadlock. This is from a reference photo from our visit to India (Tamil Nadu) last year. We were coming out of an ancient Amman temple (Goddess Periyanayaki) which was adjacent to the famous Darasuram temple near Kumbakonam and this street beckoned us. The blaring sunlight made us squint our eyes becasue the temple precincts from where we  were stepping out were poorly lit and were rather dark. So what struck me in this was the sunlight which I tried to portray as the main attraction in this effort. Made on Arches Rough surface measuring  20"x14".
Comments welcome! Thanks for looking!

My loved one/s!

Blue and yellow - two of my loved primaries, close to my heart, are the basic colours in these two paintings! The yellow roses I wanted to finish on Valentine day but could not and the blue one I finished today . The roses were from a demo in a magazine, just wanted to loosen up, the ship painting is a repeat of my earlier study which I wanted to do on a bigger sheet of paper, just to re-experience the joy I had while painting the blue sky and the water  for the first time. Thanks for your time, comments welcome!

Many Splendored thing!

To borrow a line from Emily Dickinson, like love, Hyde Park is a many splendored thing. It has got immense variety, ever changing colours and moods! Just cross the Serpentine Bridge and the Kensington Palace Gardens offers no less! Living close to these sisters in bloom, it is no surprise that I have done many paintings inspired by these two parks. Recently I did four paintings, each from a different angle showing different feelings. Hope you will like them! If ever you visit these places, try to locate these amazing scenes!

 

This is the Lido Restaurant, Hyde Park.

This is a view of Kensington Palace in winter!

Sunrise on the serpentine bridge !

Another view of snow-laden Hyde Park.

All done on half sheets, rough surface.

Comments welcome!

Fairy Queen

I was doing some scenes of Hyde Park when I suddenly came across this majestic vessel in an old travel magazine I was going to dump. Dropped everything to do a quick study of this beautiful ship. Quite satisfied with the impact this made against the cool sky and the rough sea. Hope you like it too! Thanks for looking.
Quarter sheet of Montval cold pressed paper.

My Pet Project II

This time it is the turn of my grandnephew, Pranav. He is four and a half years and cannot stomach the fact that I painted his sister and not him. His sister's portrait is in hiding till now and it can be made public only when I paint her brother! Now that I have accomplished that, my grandniece's portrait can be shown to all now!

I am happy that this has come out nicely, hope he likes it when he sees it, it is waiting for him.
Comments welcome!

My Pet Project!

One day I put my grandniece's photo as desktop background image and since then whenever I was in front of the computer, I couldn't resist the temptation to paint her portrait! I was very unsure as portrait is not my forte as I had learnt when I painted my wife a few years ago which she described as a 'witch'. I had to plead 'not guilty' at that time-putting the blame on my lack of skills! We visited the National Portrait Gallery in London last weekend and may be I was inspired to do a portrait and what more appropriate subject there can be than this cute little grandniece of mine! 


I had spent a lot of time playing with her around Christmas and the perplexed look on her face looking at the flashing camera was the moment I tried to capture in this painting. Alas, I lost that moment somewhere along the painting, but I am well satisfied at the end product. Here are the reference photo and the painting, measuring 37x28cm on Montval watercolour paper 300 gsm (NOT).

Comments will be much appreciated!

One more street scene!

This is  a sleeping street in Swamimalai town, very close to Kumbakonam, in Tamil Nadu (India) where we spent three days recently. We had parked on this street when we went to collect the Chola Statue(in  bronze) we had ordered. The art of making bronze statues is a tradition preserved from the 10th Century in these parts and we had a demonstration of it which inspired us to buy one. This street houses a few of the sculptors and their showrooms, the one we bought was from a cooperative of sculptors just down the road.

I tried to capture the sunlight in this street apart from conveying the general mood of this sleepy town in an afternoon. One lone scooter is speeding with a pillion rider, just enough life to indicate some activity. I did not make much compositional changes to the reference photograph I took except to crop off some portion of the left which is also here for you to see.

And here is the painting measuring 38x27 cm on Montval watercolour paper(140lb).

Comments are welcome, as always!

Happy new year!

Hi, folks, wishing all of you a very very happy, prosperous and healthy new year! It is quite sometime since I blogged! We had a wonderful visit to India (Chennai, Chidambaram, Mayiladuthurai, Thirukadaiyur, Swamimalai, Kumbakonam, Coimbatore, Udumalpet, Tirupur and finally New Delhi). The magic of India is still fresh with me, please have a glimpse of some of the places we visited by clicking this album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/murugesan18/IndiaVisit2009#


Though I went with my travel painting kit, never had a chance to paint, but did some sketches during the last leg of the visit. Some of them are here!

 

My first painting of this year, a village scene from Tamilnadu, India, using a photo I took near Thirukkadaiyur. I especially enjoyed working (for the first time) on the handmade paper I brought from India, which is very versatile and very forgiving! 49cm x 33 cm.

Comments welcome, as usual!

London Eye from St James Park

I desperately wanted to finish this one which was on my table for quite sometime, before I leave for India for a month! Feels good that there is no unfinished work to come back to! The sky was spontaneous and I like it. The foliage and the buildings also came good. But I had to work hard at the water and the reflections. Am I satisfied with the result? Yes, I can say yes, sort of. Anyway, here is it, and plese judge for yourself! Thanks for looking and may be there will be a break in this chain for sometime, planning to do some sketching in India. See you soon!

53 x 32 cm Saunders Waterford Rough 640 gms

Mellow mistfulness

London in a mood of mellow mistfulness! I tried a different technique to bring out this mood of London in this, lot of work, pouring, masking, pouring, masking, it goes on, till I get the desired results. Used only three primaries in this experiment. I won't rate it great but after working so hard, I thought I should share it with you. It is a love's labour, after all.

38cmx29 Montval cold press paper.

Comments welcome!

Brighton Marina

One more from Brighton visit. It is the same West Pier but with a different atmosphere! I included a family with children playing in the beach to show some activity. The sky is overcast but I cropped it to give a peaceful look. Thanks for looking. Comments welcome!

Ambleside, Lake District

The Windermere lake in the Lake District offers a very long cruise opportunity with lots of picturesque views along the route. We started the cruise from Ambleside village where we stayed this summer. It was a very cloudy day with typical UK weather. I tried to capture the misty conditions in this attempt!

Hollyhocks: A Floral

Did something different! A floral! Just for the heck of it! I used a photo from the image library of Wetcanvas Forum. Masked the drawing to do the background, floated washes very wet in wet, the result is not what I expected. When dry, removed the masking and did the flowers and the leaves.Some of the paper surface came off with the masking, (I should have used a different paper). Still not so bad, the leaves do not show very well because of the dark background, but the flowers stand out in contrast. May be I will avoid the pitfalls next time.Enjoyed the experience, though. 

W&N Artist Watercolour paper 37 x 30  cm