Cactus Monday again - my flowering adenium

One of my favourite plants are adeniums. This one has been flowering throughout this year. What is amazing is that the pink in the flowers vary in their intensity at different times of the year...at the moment the bright pink is only on the edges...later in the year, during winter, almost the entire flower is a bright pink! Since they belong to the succulent family, I am painted it for my Cactus Monday challenge.

Blue Flowers

These grow in my veranda 'garden'!!!! Its monsoon time and so many things are beginning to bloom. I got this plant in Assam, and it has traveled with me to Kolkata! The flowers are so beautiful and quite unique as they grow out of the leaves! Unfortunately they only stay in bloom for a day!
This was painted in my journal, and I wish I had left the background white...I tried putting in the impression of the leaves that were surrounding the flowers...and now I feel the background is a little too overpowering and the flowers are getting lost! Hmmmmmm! its all about learning!

 Here's a photograph to show how pretty they actually are!

The hut in the Himalayas

This is the birthday card I made yesterday for Mummy. It's from one of the  many reference pictures I collected during our trek to Roopkund last year. This was a hut on a ridge....the sun glinting on the roof and made a really nice picture. Not sure if I got the perspective of the mountains in the back....Maybe they should have been a little more blue.......

Still Life again!

Two more 'still life' pictures from painting class. We took the challenge of doing a 'big' picture and focus on painting reflections off crystal. This picture is 24" square. The bright pink dupatta was a wonderful colour to use in the background, after all the browns and greens I tend to paint with. I loved doing this picture.It took time and helped me concentrate and focus on what was important, the glints and reflections, the expanse of fabric..... On the whole I feel the picture came out well, except for the white fabric....I got a little to generous with the grey for the folds on the white table cloth!

The next one is also a 'quick' still life and took me all of 2 hours from the drawing to finishing the picture. We rummaged in Jyoti's fridge and took out whatever we could find! I think the 'quick painting' bit suits me...It helps me focus.  I had to stop myself from fiddling and spoil the picture!!!!

lights and shadows

Viveck and I went to Dehra Dun, very suddenly, to be with friends. I was sitting on the Shatapdi train and waiting for it to start,  very early in the morning, and noticed what a good picture the opposite platform, with its bench and grill, made, the rays of the early morning sun were just gently lighting one side but a a hint of shadow remained on the other! These are all old structures, that are getting spruced up and painted for the Commonwealth games India is hosting this year!

 In Dehra Dun we stayed in a little cottage attached to the main house and there was so many opportunities to paint. I loved waking up in the early morning to the sound of birds, the rain...and be able to look out of the window and enjoy the quiet and stillness. My spirit gets rested when I am amidst trees and greenery!

I used a pen for a few of the pictures and stuck with only water colours with the others.

Have to thank Nafisa for insisting I keep a journal! Painting seems to have become addictive!

Cactus Monday...my flowering cactai

I have been travelling, and got back late yesterday to find my cactai flowering! I am THRILLED! So although it is Tuesday morning, I am posting it anyway! The paper was not too good so seems to have buckled...and the background hasn't come out the way I wanted it to! But am posting it anyway!

Windows

I have always been fascinated by windows and doors, especially old ones, and as I travel around, I keep looking for interesting ones. This is a window of a traditional house in Portugal which was taken last year during our visit. I painted a small version of it in colour in a card for Nishka, but decided to do a larger one. Viveck suggested I do this in monotone, so I did using burnt umber, a colour I really love. Viveck thinks this is a really good version, and so do I! I think the colour catches the antiquity of the building, but possibly I should have used handmade paper.Working with a single colour wasn't easy at all...but it certainly taught me about painting perspectives and value!

The Goa Experience

We have just come back from a really rejuvenating and wonderful holiday in Goa. It was a celebration for Viveck's 60th...and of course all the girls, their significant others and my baby Sufi...only added to making it a totally perfect experience.We stayed in an old converted Portuguese house outside a village, quite close to the beach. It was 'off season' as we are in the middle of the monsoons, but it was glorious. I decided to keep a journal for this holiday, so these are some of my pictures. It was quite a challenge painting plain aire all the time, but it taught me a lot. I was so inspired all the time...I love painting from nature...so it was quite perfect!
Tiger lillies with flooded paddy fields behind...and of course coconut palms!

The colours were so vibrant, so many shades of greens and browns...everything shone all the timre as the rain continuously washed everythinh clean.
Nafisa taught me the technique of using a black pen on my water colours, so I did that on the picture of the leaves above and this one below