Playful Art

A Day in the Life -sketchbook project page 21 color pencils

I always wonder how and who came up with original recipes and cooking methods for various dishes.  How and who concocted the very first delicacies? or the herbal remedies? The cough syrup herbal remedy that my aunt made for me was a wonderfully powerful one that relieved me of my incessant hacking  during my trip to India in January.  I do hope that these recipes and knowledge don't get lost as the world moves towards new and improved technology.

Speaking of innovations and creations, I watched  TED fellow Aparana Rao talk about her unique interactive art projects that are steeped in surprising, playful and humorous ideas.  Check it out and see why I want one of her high tech art installation 'shy pygmies' ! I am totally fascinated by her mix of art and technology - her fun 'uncle phone',   delightful 'drunken man', the intimidating expanding cube, and cute tired oil blob. Actually I am in awe of her imagination and innovation! What a wonderful way to infuse art with 'humanity' that begs one to respond and interact. 

Stash and Search

A Day in the Life - Page 20 Sketchbook Project Color Pencils  

"The great question is not whether you have the best nut, but whether you are content with your nut." (Bill Squirrelspeare)  

I hoard  quotes and am so ecstatic when I can pull out a perfect one from my stash :) I also have over 15,000 photos in my newest laptop, similar amounts an older  desk top and too many prints from 'film' years. With a digital camera I take way too many photographs with abandon and am very hesitant to delete the so-so ones.  Quite often I know I have a reference photo I have clicked for what I want to paint. But when the best cataloging system I have is  'I know I took a picture....' ,  I think I am like the squirrel who finds something wherever she looks :) Usually, in my photo-album searches, I stumble across something else I like and the next thing I know I am off with a new idea.

By the way, check here and here  if you are curious about squirrels and nuts  :) 

Dancing in the Light

Dancing in the Light  digital photography

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

 -Albert Einstein

Making Waves

Making Waves watercolor 4"x4"

Unruffled watercolor 4x4"

Splash of color watercolor 4x4"

These ducks were entertaining a toddler who was shrieking with joy as the birds swam gracefully in circles in a small fountain early last spring.  I watched the birds and the child for a long time and took many photographs. Later, it was pure joy for me to paint the colorful ducks and the water using watercolors. The challenge in the paintings was to capture the different textures of the birds, the fluidity of the water and a hint of reflection. My aim was to make the ducks sparkle with color. Each painting was a unique discovery of beauty of nature, of colors and patterns.  

These are miniature paintings and the top two - "Unruffled" & "Making Waves" were selected for "Small Works" exhibit at the Charles Taylor Art Center in Hampton, VA along with my other miniature "Slow Sunny Day. The show opened today and will run through December 4.  

Bobbing colors and Shadows

A Day in the Life - Sketchbook Project page 19 color pencils 5x7"

I see this little shed with these colorful buoys behind a high fence everyday as I drive or walk by it near the end of our street.  The arrangement and number  of buoys keeps changing - yesterday there were only a few but this past winter when I was on my walk, the sun was at just the right angle on the full display of vivid objects.  Through the seasons, I observed how the number of buoys, angle of light, the time of day changes the shadows making for exciting shapes and colors. All this helped me change the arrangement the way I felt comfortable with as I sketched. 

I had an 'ah-ha' moment when I realized that I 'draw' outlines of the objects  but I have to 'paint' shapes and values! Shapes in right color & value with lost and found edges essentially complete a painting save for a few accents! So now I know to focus my efforts in future paintings on the refinement of interlocking shapes in my composition, making highlights blend, anchoring the shadows so objects pop out.  Most of writing and painting is observing and thinking and seeing the relationships :) 

The Surreptitious Scion of Summer

Mushrooms Digital Photography

These gorgeous mushrooms are some of the specimens I photographed a few days ago on my walk.  I was trying to ID them and was sidetracked when I came across two wonderful TED talk videos on mushrooms, their usefulness and their new role in the modern technological developments.  Paul Stamet holds numerous patents and in his TED talk, outlines six ways mushrooms can save the world. He has fine tuned cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox, ridding carpenter ants and termites etc. using mushrooms.  His 'Life Boxes' are a surprising way to renew the soil! He 'seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords.'  It is a treat to watch his talk . I am amazed by the potential that is hidden in these life forms! I also found out that 400 million years ago they were giant three feet tall mushrooms called Prototaxitis  and their fossil can be found in Saudi Arabia!

"Are the mushrooms the new plastic?" is the title of the TED Talk by Eben Bayer. ' Eben Bayer is a product designer and he 'reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens — and the environment.'  I have new respect for these nature's wonders and recycling system.  

And if you can name these mushrooms, please leave a comment and let me know  :) 

Bursting Colors

Bursting colors watercolor on Yupo  5x7"

For the past few days,  after  the relentless rains finally stopped, my walks on the trail have been especially  delightful with mushrooms of all sizes, colors and variety popping up just about everywhere! These colorful ones were peeking out through a mess of twigs, grass blades and rotting leaves. I put my small camera below the mushrooms close to the ground to capture the colorful specimens!  I am grateful that I slip my little camera with me whenever I get out.  I did not want to disturb them or pluck them out even though I would have liked to sketch them from life. Upon a bit of research I think they are a variety of Hygrocybe punicea  and probably not poisonous. 

I was not planning on filling up the paper with color but somehow got carried away! I loaded my brush with transparent colors, and used, brushstrokes, crushed paper tissue, and misting for texture. 

Poetry of Lines of Shapes

A Day in The Life.... Sketchbook Project page 18 Color pencils 

Our little town still has above ground telephone and electric lines and there are always mourning doves or purple matins etc. sitting on the wires - quite often a conference of them! I love to watch them as they fly away and come back following some private code of their own.  I was very pleased to draw a simple sketch of those birds and incorporate them into my Art House Co-Op Sketchbook-Fiction project narrative.  While working on the project  I really learned the poetry of lines, forms, shapes and colors in sketches. And I realized that to be a true artist I need to follow Irwin Greenberg's advice, " Draw everywhere and all the time. An artist is a sketchbook with a person attached. "   :) 

Different Perspectives

Hanging Beauties  6x4" watercolor

Delicate Beauty  4x4" watercolor

Lately I have been hearing again and again how we should shut off all the technological distractions like cell phones, computers, iPads, television etc and concentrate only creating. But is artistic creativity only confined to the traditional platforms? In today's society, what is the artist's responsibility for showing different perspectives; for using various newer media in creative ways for making a statement; for helping the world learn to empathize?  A TED Talk by Artist Raghava  KK    "Shake Up Your Story" shows off  his children's book idea for iPad. The brilliant creativity he displays  showcases how to expose children to various perspectives on morality, culture, religion etc in a playful, kid-friendly way.  What a wonderful way as an artist to open minds.  

First Light of the Day

Sunrise By The Water Digital Photography

“He who is here in the human being, and he, who is there in the sun, are one and the same.” (sa yas-cayam purushe, yas-chasavaditye, sa ekah).

Taittireeya Upanishad

Summer Dreams

The Day In The Life...sketchbook project page 17 color pencils

My Fiction/sketchbook project  The Day In the Life -In Blue Jeans with gold Embroidery is digitized and online  at the Art House Co-op website :)  I will still slowly put the pages on this blog too but this lets you look/read the whole thing with one click. 

Now, looking at all the scanned pages in one place, I really long for another goal to work towards! These days I find between catching up on housework,  some garden tending, getting the house repaired, repainted and rearranged, my art time has really eroded. I also have a few wonderful new art books that I am thumbing through that have ideas and techniques that I can't wait to try! And then there is the new Adobe Photoshop that I just purchased and waiting to be mastered. I have to find some extra time - any ideas and tips for me? 

Rideable Art

Rideable Art  digital photography Mysore  Aug 2011

Think of bicycle as rideable art that can just about save the world 

-Grant Peterson

Field Experiments

Watermelon and berries  sketching with Aquaflow brush with watercolor tube paint

At the Gate sketches with Aquaflow brush, tube paint, Pilot G-2 pen

Ready to Board  sketch with Aquaflow brush, tube paint, Pilot G-2 pen

I had purchased a Aquaflow waterbrush just before my unexpected  trip to India last month. I made myself a small field box by putting a blob of paint each of cool and warm reds, blues, and greens, aurelion yellow, raw umber, burnt umber into an old small flat Celestial Seasoning Tea box measuring 3"x2"x1/2" . The brush, the box and my sketch book (5x3"), a Pilot G-2 pen were packed into a quart size ziploc bag and fit in my purse neatly. 

I really enjoyed trying out my 'field sketch box kit' at the airports mostly and found it fun. It took some practice to get a feel for the brush which has a store of water --to figure out how much to squeeze as you paint and how to blend the colors!  I also now know to add a sponge or couple of paper towels to the kit. I played around with sketching first and then adding the colors  as well as putting down the colors first and then defining with the pen. Except that by the end of the trip, some of the paints mixed with each other (airplane pressure issue?) and there was a small mess in part of the box, the kit was a successful experiment. 

Fig  Salvia  sketches with Sakura waterbrush Koi watercolor field sketch box

The sketches of the fig and the Salvia was done at home couple of days ago with the Koi Watercolor Field sketch Box and the Sakura waterbrush that came with it.  The field box has 24 mini pans of paint, 2 sponge strips, a mixing tray that fits neatly to the side when opened, and room for the dis-assembled brushpen. The lid can be used as a mini easel for the watercolor paper that I cut fit into the space between the lid and the mixing tray.  I could hold the field box in one one hand and paint with the other, making it a neat field box. The box measures 6"x4"x1" when closed. I am not too happy with the waterbrush that came with as it kept loosing hair and it took me a while to figure out that I had to twist it to the right to loosen it as opposed to turning to left as I instinctively do ! I was afraid I was going to ruin the brush even before I had a chance to paint with it!!!  I am really looking forward to using my field kits regularly and hope all the sketching will make a difference in my studio paintings :) Please let me know how you approach sketching on the go.   

the set ups :)

Messages for Life

A Day In the Life -sketchbook project page 16 color pencils 

Once again, I am given a new perspective on life - life that is exceedingly fragile, unpredictable and where change is the only constant. We were away in India coping with the untimely, unexpected loss of my  husband's beloved brother when we read about the earthquake that shook our area. Two days later, it was hurricane warnings and evacuation orders for our area as we landed back in USA, hours before the airport closed  due to inclement weather. 

We were lucky to wait out Hurricane Irene at our son's house just far enough from the dreaded path. I fretted and watched the Weather Channel with memories of Hurricane Isabel's destruction too clear in my mind, bracing for the worst but hoping and praying for a miracle. I am thankful for our wonderful neighbors and friends who generously secured our house and yard as Irene furiously spiraled her way up the Eastern seaboard. In the end, Irene spared us - our town, our house and our yard is intact. We drove back home on bright beautiful dayafter and  now only have to clear a bit of debris. And we did not loose power, water or gas service.

For days, sorrow, worry and fear has gripped my heart as I struggled with the uncertainties of life. Now, I am forced to learn to appreciate every single moment; to not take anything or anyone for granted; to be just grateful.

Foliage for a Dream

A Day in the Life... Sketchbook Project page 15 color pencil

In the peak of summer if trees look like these, it is definitely cause for worry!  When I was working on my Art House Sketchbook Fiction Project earlier in the year, the trees were still bare and looked nothing like the lush green ones I see outside now.  From my first Fall and Winter in the USA many many moons ago, I have never ceased to be amazed by the bareness of the trees when the temperatures dip and seasons change. I still wonder if the very first people ever knew that the trees would burst back into life in a few months.  

'The place is all awave with trees,

Limes, myrtles, purple-beaded,

Acacias having drunk the lees

Of the night-dew, fain headed,

And wan, grey olive-woods, which seem

The fittest foliage for a dream. '

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

Balcony Seats

Balcony Seats Digital Photography

'Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.' 

Rabindranath Tagore 

Mini Sacred Pause

Slow Sunny Day watercolor 2.5"x6.5"

When I was in Istanbul two years ago, this scene by the square near the Blue Mosque caught my eye. I can't remember what she was selling as she sat there on that very sunny hot hot day. The square was quite crowded with pilgrims and tourists but I saw how the lady watching the child and the child joyfully chasing after the flock of birds were each in their own world.  In this miniature, I choose to paint just that. It was a challenge to paint small and only some of details but I loved the process. 

I read the other day in a article "Sacred Pause" written by Hugh Bryne and Rebecca Hines :"In the midst of daily life there are simple ways to take a “mini sacred pause,” bring awareness to what is alive here and now, and relax into presence" Doesn't it look like the lady and the child know how to integrate those mindful principles? As it is life is very fragile - we definitely need to take and appreciate these 'sacred pauses.'

The Seven Links Project

Hanging Fire watercolor 16x12 

Here it is, 'Hanging Fire' selected by my husband as my most beautiful  painting for my Seven Links Project. As mentioned in my previous post,  The Seven Links Project is courtesy of Crystal Cook who tagged me to post seven links in my blog for

Your most beautiful post

Your most popular post

Your most controversial post

Your most helpful post

A post whose success surprised you

A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved

The post you are most proud of

The idea behind the project is "to unite bloggers(from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of the day again"  

I could never settle on any of my paintings as my most beautiful one (being partial to all of them (-: ), so,  I finally asked my husband for his pick.  I agree with him that the peppers in Hanging Fire look gorgeous in their luscious red. Please let me know what you think is my most beautiful painting -- I know that is  a very subjective selection !

Resplendent  Watercolor on Yupo 11x14"

Resplendent on Yupo is definitely my choice for 'your most popular post'  if going by the number of hits it gets every single day.  The blogger picked it as my most popular post for the side bar! This painting gave me confidence to continue my experiments on Yupo paper.

Ignorance mixed media 12x15" 

'The post you are most proudest of '  has to be my mixed media painting  Ignorance.  That particular day I had picked up one of my failed paintings of a street scene of a town in India to see if I could salvage it.  Listening to the news about wars in various parts of the world, I started  a collage  on it from torn pieces of rice paper from another failed calligraphy attempt about "Truth alone triumphs.' I was guided by a photograph from one of the newspapers from couple of months before that had etched in my memory - even today I see clearly in my mind's eye the dark figures in a chaotic city scape with blue smoke from a bomb blast.  I am proud of how I channeled my frustration with the violent world out there, my failed paintings and brought together various mediums and styles to express myself.  I am also proud that my daughter within minutes of my posting the painting e-mailed me to ask me if she could have it!

Collateral Damage  water media 9x12 

'Collateral Damage'  surely qualifies for  the 'your most controversial post'.  I consider it controversial for the artistic liberties I took in painting the  disaster caused by the Gulf oil spill. The scene is from my imagination and I closed that post with the thought :  'My hope is that the message doesn't get swept away in the debate about realistic depiction'.

Sketch of a sculpture, white Prismacolor pencil on black paper

The honor for 'A post whose success surprised you' goes to Negative Drawing  showing the sketch of a sculpture done with white Prismacolor pencil on black paper.  I am pleased that I was successful in sketching the sculpture from Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA  as well as how according to Stats it has become the second most popular post on my blog!

'A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved'  goes to Show-off time :

Bangle Pedlar  color pencils 14x10" 

I wavered between Bangle Pedlar and Mandala Meditation - both color pencil portraits. I settled on Bangle Pedlar  from my second blog post but very first post of a painting  -a portrait in color pencils. I guess it is understandable that I never got any feedback on the painting as my blog was still very new :) The painting hangs in my living room and always elicits a happy reaction from all who see it.

At the Art Institute of Chicago digital Photography

As for the 'most helpful post', I would like to think that all my posts are helpful in some way as I strive to include a link or two or some information that one might find useful or worthy of contemplation :)  I consider  my post on 'Universal Acceptance' most helpful - as my attempt at shining a light on how important it is to accept one and all and find  unity in all our diversity.

Now, I pass the Seven Links Project challenge on to :

Teresa Sheeran Houstan

Padmaja

Heera

Shalini

Cathy

I really enjoyed doing this challenge - wonderful way to go back and see how my blog and my artistic abilities have evolved  :) 

Unexpected Pleasures!

A Day In The Life... sketchbook project  page 14 color pencil

I had a pleasant surprise last week when the talented artist Crystal Cook tagged me in her post The Seven Links Project , which is "to unite bloggers from all sectors in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve the light of the day."  As a result, my Seven Links Project - which is in the making right now - will be revealed in my next post :) In the mean time, please do check out her project  and admire her beautiful sensitive paintings!

Regarding page 14 of my Art House Co-op's Sketchbook project "A Day In the Life - in Blue Jeans with Gold Embroidery" :  it is the first time I had sketched a heron in color.  I always hesitated to paint the big beautiful birds because I didn't think I could do justice to their grace and elegance.  The surprising reward of the sketch book project is that it has been wonderful for my skills and self confidence. It forced me to tackle subject matters that I kept putting aside and pushed me beyond my comfort zone just so I could fill the book up!! Now, my newest resolve is to just sketch everyday without regard to subject matter and to paint some of those sketches from my book "A Day in the Life -in Blue Jeans with Gold Embroidery " on bigger sheets of watercolor paper :)

Want or Need?

A Day In the Life ..in Blue Jeans with Gold Embroidery  - Page 13 (Sketchbook/fiction Project )color pencils

Do I call this co-incidence? This page done months ago was next in line to be posted. And as it happens,  I just returned from a week of retreat at the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam where the teaching is all about how to deal with desires, aversions, dispassion, work with the attitude of worship and to accept everything in the spirit of blessing.  This teaching more than anything reinforces how I should put forth my best effort, enjoy the process of painting and not get hung up on the final product. Over the years I have realized that it really frees up the creative process when I do the preparatory work,  trust my instincts and let things just be. I read and hear again and again that meditation and mindfulness will take  creativity and life to a different level - hope to be able to follow that advice consistently one of these days! 

What philosophy nourishes your artistic endeavors? 

Framing Nature

Framing Nature : A Window at San Antonio Museum of Art - digital photography 

I think most of the time it is hard to improve what nature has to offer.  Copying nature is challenging and I often feel humbled as I sketch and paint.  Nina Tandon in a TED talk experiences this in a completely different way in what she calls 'Biomimetic Paradigm" - as she copies nature in the lab. She engineers artificial tissues for transplants and therapies.  Watch her short video as she talks about this amazing process.  

Taking Liberties

Pause  watercolors 12x9"

Taking liberties with color  and composition is what I aimed for in this painting.  I had taken a photograph many years ago at Colonial Williamsburg of a costumed interpreter taking a break. As soon as I asked permission to take her photograph, she straightened up and posed in a stiff stance.

This past week I played around. I changed and simplified the background colors. I managed to give her  back the look I had wanted to capture on that particular day. I observed a few ladies carrying babies on their hips and chatting - that helped me to paint  her this way. I was pleased to be able to make the changes and complete the painting.  When I straddle between realistic and conjured depictions, I feel a different sense of accomplishment  as I finish the painting.  

Artistic Impulse

A Day in The Life   page 12 color pencils

As an artist you are always told to develop your own style. Well, I just watched a TED talk by Shea Hembrey  -- he became 100 artists with hundred different styles for his own 'International Biennial Show!'  He made up artists from different counties, invented bios, wrote one hundred different artist statements and created different styles, forms of art in all different sizes too - paintings, sculptures, performance arts, installations, movies/documentaries. He was even his own curator, Gallery director --but of course, you know by now that he came up with names and positions and bios for them too.

There is a huge debate going on in TED site about what all this means.  I am impressed with his audacity, creativity and sense of humor. It tickled me that he has hundred different artists in him and now I feel comfortable to carry on with my varied styles and  choice of mediums without feeling compelled to choose one or the other. Does this mean I may end up not mastering any one style or medium? Probably so but I may never grow as an artist if I don't keep experimenting and pushing my limits. When it comes to creativity, I think it is a fine line between being focused and spreading yourself thin! Check out the hilarious and creative talk and a sample of his hundred of artists in the TED-video. Please leave a comment and let me know your opinion about it. 

Perfect Patience

Perfect Patience  digital photography

We often think that it is impossible

to develop perfect patience; however

 if we know our nature and our qualities,

and if we train ourselves in them,

it is completely possible to do it.

-Bokar Rinpoche

Spectacular Images

A Day In the Life..Full of Surprises  page11 color pencils

I am waiting for The Art House Co Op to finish revamping their website and for my project A Day in the Life -in Blue Jeans With Gold Embroidery  to be added to their digital library. I am also hoping their scanned online versions are better than mine :).  

Even as I am pleased to have completed writing and illustrating  a small book for the Fiction Project, I am fascinated by what I read and see on their site about how some artists challenged themselves to take their art to new level by changing the paper in the moleskine journals or turning it into an accordion book etc., transforming the materials they were given. I just watched a TED talk by artist Janet Echelman on 'Taking Imagination Seriously.' I am in awe of her creativity and drive to pursue her unbelievably big imagination! I also really like how she combines science and art in her work. Having just returned from Chicago last month, where Anish Kapoor has his sculpture the Bean/cloud, I wonder how does one come up with work of art that scale and magnitude that boggles the mind? Is it a different level of risk taking, resourcefulness, determination, tenacity  combined with  the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time and to know to seize upon the opportunity presented?  And does it have to be  really spectacular or it is not imagination taken to the edge?  

Sixteen Rules to Forget

Koi  (final) watercolor on Yupo 11x14

A month and a half ago when I was getting ready to frame the paintings for my show at the library, I had to stop and go back over my earlier version of  the Koi painting, further deepening the shadows (the photograph unfortunately still doesn't capture the darks well enough) and adding some more details to the fish and the water.  I like this newer more vibrant version :). Under glass with  'museum white' double mat really gives the painting a wonderful 'finished' look. I can never  get over how matting and framing dresses up a painting!!! 

I must admit I have been washing, painting, rewashing and painting again on regular paper for a few years  but  its easier on Yupo.  Yupo paper  has helped me be bolder with trying out various options for a painting --especially going darker, then coming back and saving the whites. It has helped me take chances and  try out different solutions on the same painting till I am satisfied. I play with shapes, values, colors or other elements with abandon. Recently I reread Arne Westerman's book "Painting Watercolors Filled with Life and Energy." and it reaffirmed for me the method in my madness. At the end of the book he has  a chapter on Six Things to Remember and Sixteen Rules to Forget (my favorite)! I am sharing shortened versions of both below (and that will also help me remember better .)

Remember these: 

1. Paint only those things you feel connected to.

2.  Consider the uniqueness of your idea.

3.  See your work as a rectangle -not a person or a thing in the middle of a rectangle.

4.  Simplify.

5.  Use light like a film director.

6.  Use color with boldness. 

Forget These Rules: Rules (in italics) and my summarized version of his  refreshingly candid comments/explanation (not in italics) 

1.  Be careful to avoid "ouzles" in your painting. -Don't worry-its one of the exclusive qualities of watercolor.

2.  Design is simply a matter of picking the right formula. Not really. Just keep it simple. 

3. Watercolor is an unforgiving medium. Nonsense. You can paint, wash it off, restate and wash again.

4.  Expensive brushes are better and last longer. Not necessarily.  Experiment and find brushes just right for you.

5.  Paper must be stretched before painting. Not true.

6.  Don't use opaque white paint. Thats cheating.  A silly rule aimed to prove how difficult it is to paint 'transparent color.' The Old Masters used white paint. Cerulean blue, red & orange cadmiums, and yellow ochre are as opaque as white. 

7.  Always erase your pencil lines.  Not necessary.  It adds interest and texture.

8.  Be careful with the paper's surface.  Good watercolor paper takes a lot of abuse and its the results that count.

9.  Be neat and tidy.  Wrong.

10. Don't waste film, paint, paper and other supplies. Better to waste than lose a great opportunity.

11. Don't paint from photographs. Paint on the scene or work from photographs. Go either way without guilt.

12. Always work light to dark.  Not true. Develop as you go. 

13. Make every brushstroke count. No. You will play it safe and go nuts.

14.  Watercolor requires tremendous control. Not true. If you don't like it wash it off.

15.  Don't paint a vertical subject in a vertical format. Not necessarily.

16. Always stay inside the lines.  The term "crossing the line" suggests adventure. 

I close with these words from Arne Westerman: "You are an artist. Go to work." 

Beauty, Shadow and Reflection

Beauty, Shadow and Reflection  watercolor 9x12

I saw this tiny colorful beauty drinking from a puddle on a cold January morning when I was out on a walk.  I stopped to admire. I am  also drawn to shadows and reflections and  I was immediately attracted by the three shapes that intersected as the bird cautiously watched my movements.  I, as cautiously and slowly, took out my camera and managed to capture the moment as he/she continued to survey the scene.  Finally this week I painted this as a reminder of that wonderful encounter.  I used my favorite Canson Montval cold press watercolor paper, a small brush along with lots of patience to complete the painting :)

Shadow Play

A Day in the Life   page 10 color pencils

At the rate I am posting the sketchbook pages from my book A Day In The Life  for The Fiction Project, I will have fodder for my blog for a couple months :)  As with the reflections, shadows also intrigue me.  A Conrad Hall quote says it eloquently: There are infinite shadings of light and shadows and colors... it's an extraordinarily subtle language. Figuring out how to speak that language is a lifetime job. 

I came across some beautiful shadows that were artistically created by manipulating various objects and light.  The creativity behind these shadows is mindbogging! These are a long way from the wall shadows my brother and I did as  children with flashlight and fingers on our hands on rainy mansoon nights when  there was no electricity and we were looking for entertainment!