Pickle Jar and Fruits

Pastel on paper 16" X 20"

This painting is currently on exhibit (now through January 10th) at the Livingston community center as a part of  the Fall exhibit for Livingston art association. If you live around here, please visit the show. 

Pepper and Garlic

Pastel on Paper 5" X 7"

Two Roses

Pastel 5" X 7"

Grapes marching again!

Pastel on Paper 8" X 10"

Made a few changes to the previous composition. Changed the background and gave the forground some depth. I somehow like both!

Marching Grapes

Pastel on Paper 8" X 10"

Golden tree

Pastel on paper 5" X 7"

Stroll by the ruins

Pastel on Paper 5" X 7"

Taking a break from all the Fall paintings. This painting is from a picture I took in India when I was visiting the ruins of fort Tuglaqabad. 

Fall at Verona Park - 4

Pastel on Paper 6" X 6"

Another view of the Verona Lake, can't seem to get enough of it! :) I especially like the tall evergreens towering over the beautiful fall foliage.

Fall at Verona Park- 3

Pastel on paper 5" X 7"

Fall at Verona Park -2

Pastel on paper 5" X 7"

A view of the Verona Lake!

Fall at Verona Park -1

Pastel on paper 5" X 7"

Fall colors are so beautiful, I wait for it all year round.  Last week I went to Verona Park, Fall was at it's peak!  It felt like the entire place was on fire! Couple of weeks of brilliance before the long and dreary winter. I took lots of pictures, hope to paint a few! 

Pine tress at Verona park

Pastel on paper 5" X 7"

I love how these tall  Pine tress stand out along the walking trail of Verona Lake. It's one of my favorite spots there.  It's amazing how depending on how light falls on them, they offer something different every time. I will sure try to capture the effect of changing lights on them in my future paintings. 

House by the lake

Pastel 5" X 7"

Lovely little house in Verona park. It's by the Verona lake, my favorite place to go for walks.

Shed by the park

Pastel on paper 5" X 7"

A small shed at the Littel people's park in my town Livingston. 

Pickle Jar with Onions and eggs

Pastel on paper 16" X 20"

My Grandmother

Pencil on paper  8" X 10"

Chai-time

Pastel on paper 8" X 10"

Deserted

Pastel on La Carte paper 8" X 10"

Photo courtesy : Devajyoti Sarkar

Lata Mangeshkar

Pencil, 8" X 10"

This is a portrait Lata Mangeshkar, the legendary playback singer from the Indian  film industry.

Two pears

Pastel on paper 8" X 10"

Wasn't quite ready to move on from the pears. So I put them together to make a painting.

Still-lifes with brass, copper, wood and drapes

Pastel on paper,   18" X 10"

Pastel on paper,   8" X 10"

Pastel on paper,   11" x 14"

These are some more still-lifes  that I made recently. 

Kishore Kumar

Pencil sketch 8" X 10"

Drawing a portrait after a long time! This is a sketch of Kishore Kumar, one of my favorite play-back singers from Bollywood.

Ghoti

Pastel on paper,   11" x 14"

These are all old traditional household utensils commonly used by Indian people. The pot on the left, called "Ghoti" in Bengali,  holds a special sentiment in my heart because my grand father, used to drink water from it. He drank lots of water, and whenever he called me, I thought he would ask me to get him some water to drink. Mostly, I was right.  That was a long time back, but this ghoti always brings back such fond memories.

Wooden Vase and apples

Pastel on paper,   11" x 14" 

I have had this wooden vase with me for a while, waiting to be painted. I particularly like the shadow that it casts on the wall. You will certainly see more of this vase in my future paintings!

Copper Utencils

Pastel on paper,   11" x 14" 

I haven't been blogging for a while. In the mean time I painted a few still-lifes with different types of metals. This one is one of my favorites, an assortment of copper vessels. I got these utensils on my last trip to India, simply love them! I will upload the other paintings soon. Thanks for visiting my blog!

More Tulips

Pastel on Sennelier La Carte paper  8" X 10"

The Tulips I made earlier were still fresh, I decided to change the setting a little bit and paint them again!

Tulips and a plum

Pastel on Sennelier La Carte paper  8" X 10"

I was at the local farmer's market, these beautiful tulips caught my eyes. Couldn't resist getting them home to set up a still-life. Wasn't that easy to paint, the stems  kept turning and the buds were opening too fast. I wish my still-life would stay still! :)

Statue of the Lion

Pastel on Sennelier La Carte paper  11" X 14"

This is a painting of a sculpture outside of Saciyamata temple in Rajasthan, dating back to 8th-9th century AD. Generally, the lion figure in Indian art symbolizes royalty,  or is in association with deities like Durga, Parvati or Vishnu. I am always fascinated by the amazing craftsmanship of the ancient Indian architecture, and hope to eventually make a series of paintings based on them.

Elephant sculpture -2

Pastel on Sennelier La Carte paper  8" X 10"

I haven't been blogging for quite a while. Took a break from painting to prepare for my music show. Getting back to painting was difficult, and blogging even harder.  Hope I can pick up the momentum soon. 

Anyway, I had made a similar painting to this a while back in oils, you can see it here. I let my daughter give it to a friend for Christmas. Looks like I wasn't too happy to part with it, so I decided to make another one for myself.

Salt and pepper shaker

Pastel on Sennelier La Carte paper  8" X 10"

I made this painting about 10 days back, but didn't get a chance to put it up on my blog. The reason being that I have a singing performance coming up in two weeks and so I decided to take a break from painting. Well, that has given me a chance to evaluate my growth in art, and think about where I want to go from here. I think I will try painting slightly larger now, at least no more 5" X 7"s. In the meantime, I have been framing most of my paintings. I can't just keep putting them in a box when they are done! 

 My program is on the 6th of April and I am sure I will be back painting full swing soon after that. 

Tea and cookies

Pastel on Canson touch 8" X 10"

This is the other one that I painted last week. Just experimenting with this vintage point. I have almost finished one of the larger paintings I am working on, quite excited about it.

White Mums

Pastel on Sennelier La Carte paper  8" X 10"

I made this painting about a week back but didn't manage to update it here earlier. There's also another one waiting to be uploaded. Currently I am working on two larger paintings that are taking quite a bit of time and keeping me away from my blog! Hope to finish them sometime this week. 

Tools

Pastel on  Sennelier La Carte  8" X 10"

My previous still-life got me thinking in terms of tools. I went down to our workshop in the basement looking for some interesting tools to paint. These are certainly my favorite, and I will be using them this weekend to paint my daughter's room! So, I guess,  I will have to take a break from painting still-lifes to paint the walls!! :)

Painting with oils

Pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Touch 8" X 10"

Oils were my favorite medium when I painted in childhood. Later, for many years I didn't find much time for painting. It's only for few years now that I have managed to paint regularly. These days I work mostly with pastels, and keep thinking that some day I will get back to my oils. Today's still-life is to that thought ..

A few of my favorite things

Pastel on La Carte paper 5" X 7"

As I continue with my studies on transparencies, what could be better than some bright and glossy nail polish! Of course,  when it comes to make-up, my favorite lipstick also had to find a place in it.  

Glass of wine

Pastel on La Carte paper 5" X 7"

After painting juice and milk, it was time for some wine! Somehow getting the drawing of the glass right took me more time than I thought. I could do with a glass of wine afterwards.

Isha's breakfast!

Pastel on La Carte paper 5" X 7"

This is my daughter Isha's daily breakfast. Everyday she has an egg and a glass of milk before going to school. Day in and day out she is happy to have the same thing. For me though, it turned out to be an interesting subject for a still-life.

Onions

Pstel on La Carte paper 11" X 14"

I had painted these onions about a week back.  I wanted to make a couple of changes before uploading on my blog. But once I move on to another painting, it takes me forever to get back to it. Finally decided to finish it today. The twin onions sprouting totally stole my heart!  It's still laying pretty on my desk,  tempting me to paint it again. :)

Pitcher of jiuce

Pastel on La  Carte paper 8" X 10"

I have decided to do some studies on transparencies. Planning to do a few more of these.

Orange Adventure

Pastel on La Carte paper 5" X 7"

In my previous painting I felt that I should have chosen a different color for the background. The color of the oil was the same as that of the background. Whenever I have such a feeling, I push myself to the other extreme. This time I chose the background color to be the complement of the subject. I feel much happier. :)

Thank you for visiting my blog. Hope you enjoy being here!!

Oil and Pepper

Pastel on La Carte paper 8" X 10"

For a long time I have been thinking of painting this olive-oil dispenser bottle. It finally got it's turn. I had a hard time in the kitchen without it though, didn't realize how indispensable this dispenser is!!

Leaning on an egg

Pastel on La Carte paper  5" X 7"

After spending a couple of days contemplating what to paint, ended up with this shallot. Somehow the egg came as an obvious choice to pair. I must be thinking omelette! Afterwards I made a trip to the local farmer's market and picked up some interesting fruits and veggies to paint. That's coming up next!

Cherry by the bowl

Pastel on La Care paper 4" X 6"

Cherries are one of my favorite fruits. They were not as much fun painting though. I plan to work on  a new series, but still haven't found anything that excites me as much as the sprouting onions. So I will continue to explore!

Slice of apple

Pastel on La Carte paper 5" X 7"

I made a large still-life with onions to close the series I have been working on. I will be uploading that on the blog soon. It's now time for a change, and an apple always comes in handy!