St Pauli Quays, Hamburg

St Pauli quays serviced international navigators for centuries in Hamburg even though they service only passenger ferries touring Hamburg city these days. My second painting in Hamburg is inspired by this historic site. Done on a half sheet Bockingboard paper, you may find lots of loose energy in this painting.

Thanks for viewing, comments welcome!

Shaniwarwada, Pune

 Shaniwarwada was the stately mansion originally built as the residence of the Peshwas. Completed in 1732, it is a major tourist attraction in the old part of the city of Pune, Maharashtra in India. I visited this place in November last year and took this photo.

My painting measures 37x28cm on Arches 140 lb Cold Pressed paper. The foliage was the toughest part and I wanted to do it loosely. The afternoon shadows cast a spell when we were there spending a leisurely two hours in this historic place. Thanks for looking, comments welcome!

Break ke Baad!

Hi, happy new year greetings to all! It was a longer than usual break for me! Even after setting up the painting stuff in a new place(we are now in Hamburg, Germany), I was suffering from jitters I always get after a period of no painting! Million butterflies in the stomach! Since I have to start somewhere, I looked at a historic building not far from our place, Torhaus (Tor House) originally built in 1757 now housing a museum totally immersed in snow. A snow painting is the right place to start as snow is the easiest thing to paint, in fact you don't have to paint it at all! This painting in a way got me into the groove! No better way of breaking ice, than painting snow! Happy looking! Thanks!

Snow in Hamburg

I shall photo these trees in summer, hopefully in a different hairstyle!

Sketches that kept me going!

For a month now I was on the move continuously, crisscrossing India from Delhi to Coimbatore, Coimbatore to Chennai, Chennai to Hyderabad, Tirupati, Pune etc and I couldn't find that tranquil space for myself to put brush to paper. I had of course managed to put the pencil and the sketchbook to good use that helped me keep in touch with art all the while. Here are some serious ones and some playful ones, some might accidentally resemble some celebrity but I was just having fun. Thanks for viewing.

 Have a nice day!

River Dee and church, Llangollen

This is the view of the village Llangollen and its Church from the river Dee, (Wales, UK) one afternoon of this summer. A majestic view from the rocks inside the river. Here is my photo

and the painting done on Arches 640gms Not paper. Thanks for viewing, comments welcome! 

Lower Slaughter, Cotswold

We visited this beautiful Cotswold village, Lower Slaughter in September this year on our way from Burton on Water. It was a sleepy afternoon with clouds hanging over. A typical cotsworld village scene, I was attracted by the overpowering trees and their reflections in the waterway.  Focussed on the trees and the reflections I overlooked the clouds to make a simple sky. I think that helped to direct the attention to these two elements. Arches 300 gms rough surface took some punishment while I floated wahes over washes all over not excluding the sky, which saw 3 glazes of different colours.

Thanks for viewing! Comments welcome!

Woodbridge:Suffolk Coast

The Tide Mill at Woodbridge (Suffolk) is one of the most painted spots in the UK. The fishing boats against the shimmering tides always attract painters especially the maritime painters. This scene is just across the Tide Mill (I am planning to paint the Tide Mill separately soon) it was probably the last sunny day of this summer, we sat outside the Waterfront Cafe enjoying the hot sun and  a hot meal looking at this scene before us, which got imprinted in my imagination.

This is my painting of the scene, a rather simple interpretation with some wet in wet washes (timing was important though), but enjoyed doing this.

Hope you like this one. Comments welcome! Thanks for viewing.

Not far from the madding crowd

This is a quiet area very close to the very busy London West End, lower Regent Street! Picadilly is just a few yards and the shopping district of Oxford Street is not far away. This end of Regent street is of course  full of tourists at any time, the Crimean War memorial with Florence Nightingale statue making it an important landmark in London.  You certainly miss the huss and buz of the city despite being in the centre of it which attracted my in the first place to do some sketching. The busy cranes in the background are reminders of the state of Central London these days where a lot of construction activity takes place. I reduced the number of figures to four though there were more when I was sketching but compensated with some birds to add to the quiet atmosphere I was trying to portray. Lot of architectural complexities daunted me but tried to simplify them as much as possible. London always is an inspirtional city, even the quietest corner of it! Thanks for viewing. Comments welcome!

Father of the nation!

These sketches of Gandhiji were done on October 2, birthday of the father of the nation.The simplicity of the mahatma is his greatest quality and how he was able to inspire a whole nation behind him both the educated and the rural masses is in no small measure due to this quality. I thought a nice way to pay tribute to the great man that Gandhi is to capture his simplicity in these sketches! Thanks for viewing!

British Waterways

Addition of a new colour 'Lemon yellow' to my palatte has done wonders to my greens which are now brighter and more vibrant, very suitable for depicting summer foliage. It can be seen in my 'twin' paintings here where two thirds of the composition are foliage!

I came across these two identical scenes in our recent visits to Wales and Watford(just outside London). The first one is Llangollen canal (North Wales) on which boats take people onto the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We were taken to this lovely scene by our friends Latha and Sanjeev when we visited them in Chester in August.

Llangollen Canal in Wales

In my painting, I let the sky in a lot more than in the photo.

 The second one is the waterway at the Cassiopark near Watford where we spent a relaxed evening with our lovely hosts Kelvin (Sky News) and Sarah last month. The sprawling park was just a stone's throw from Kelvin's house. Both of the amazing canal scenes shrouded in foliage inspired me to experiment with my greens and I was thrilled to see the range of shades of green I could come out with the use of the new colour Lemon Yellow!

Grand Union Canal in Cassiopark near Watford

My painting closely adheres to the photo mostly!



Some photos of our visits are here to recall the mood and atmosphere of these two beautiful scenes! Thanks for viewing!

With Latha and Sanjeev at Llangellan Canal

Another view of the Llangellan Canal

With the family of Kelvin in Cassiobury Park

Boats in Grand Union canal in Cassiobury Park

Have a nice day!







Good (bye) times!

                        In a way 'our revels are now ended'! At least in London. Time to say bye to all dear ones. And I am now packing my paints and brushes, not before my last foray into portraits, my newest passion !

                        This one I presented to our dear friends Dr John and Wendy Marr, a very adorable couple with whom we spent a day in their  lovely idyllic home outside London.

Dr John and Wendy Marr happy with my little portrait of them

Both are ardent indophiles, Dr Marr received the prestigious 'Padma Shree' award last year! Their varied interests outside their academics include botany, flora and fauna, model trains and aeroplanes, music, photography - just to name a few! We spent a very educative afternoon in their garden learning about various plants from all corners of the world, ably maintained by the very green hands of Wendy! My heart almost stopped when suddenly Dr John climbed a rickety ladder to pluck juicy fig fruits for us!

Afternoon tea in the garden

Burmese Pagoda which came to London in 1917 for an Imperial Exhibition!(Very interesting story how it found its way here!)

Tasmanian Fern

Leaves of a Japanese tree mostly found in Buddhist monastries with herbal uses

We were both amazed to know about their adventurous journey  from London to India in 1969, in their newly bought Austin Minor (the backdoor of which is still preserved) very nicely captured in a poster of photographs from that visit! With razor sharp memory Dr Marr can recall myriad anecdotes with accurate names and places! A veritable treasure-house of knowledge we were lucky to partake of! Even after their retirement, they keep a very busy schedule teaching at the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. When I presented my portrait with my apologies for being a learner of portrait painting, he said, ' Murugesan, would not the world be a dull place if there is nothing new to learn or do everyday?'- which  in a nutshell is the message of the man and also is the secret behind his and Wendy's youthful energy! Truly cherishable moments!