Arjun has an amazing home in Manila. The house is HUGE with a wonderful verandas and a garden that is lush and green, with a variety of tropical plants. The plants seem so green here, and the flowers shine like jewels as they catch the sun. Its possibly because the atmosphere is much cleaner here and not as polluted as Kolkata. These orange flowers are a kind of 'flame of the forest' but in bush form!
I have been wanting to use a pen to complement my picture so have tried it in these ones! I used the pen to define important lines and add depth to the picture. I am still trying to struggle to develop a distinctive style of my own, I like to paint in a wet style, in a very transparent fashion, where the water colours don't look 'thick'! If I look critically at my work I feel my painting is improving, But I am still not getting the transparent and translucent quality of using water colours!
These are 2 leaves I picked up in the garden....loved the colours, and tried a really wet style! Thought I would do it as a 20 min. challenge, but it didnt work as there seemed too many details. Not very happy with it, but....!
Our wonderful holiday in Thailand ended with a visit to the bridge on the river Kwai in Kanchanabura....yes the same one which was a major movie with Alec Guinness!!! Naeeda and David had booked us into this beautiful resort which was on the river itself and built in a teak plantation. It had been really well planned as the rooms were actually single roomed cottages interspersed between the trees, covered in flowering orchids of all colours. The landscaping followed the natural flow of the land and had little ponds and wooden bridges! The food was excellent and we had a really relaxed time!
These two pictures were painted in my sketch book and were really quick sketches. I enjoyed being able to paint plein aire! Neither took more than an hour!
This last sketch was also done quite quickly as we lazed on cushions on the deck almost at the rivers very edge! I need to do it in colour as well! Want to see if I can paint it from this sketch as a reference!
