Saturday, January 31, 2009

Kanheri caves


Kanheri Caves are located within Sanjay Gandhi National Park of Mumbai. These caves are buddhist viharas ( Vihar- monastery). In Kanheri there are 100 plus caves which are mostly tiny cells that are cut into the edges of a hill. Way to these caves and view of Mumbai from the top is magnificent.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Wai

According to me best way of learning watercolors is by watching senior water colorist working. This weekend I grabbed that opportunity and fortunate to see many ace Indian artist at work.

This weekend I attended threedays landscape workshop at Wai. This is one of the poular location for many watercolor artist . Krishna river flows across this small town and on the banks you could see mnay temples. The town itself is historical place and there are many old houses (wada in local language)



This is one of those wada ( This is at Menavali about 4 KM from Wai).Have tried to capture oldness of that structure






This one is another painting of Nandi ( Nandi is Bull which is Lord Shiva's vehicle a ccording to Hindu mythology). ytou would find Nandi's just at the entrance of all Shiva temple and you would see plenty of them in Wai. Just for chnage I tried doing closeup .




Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Murud beach



This post comes early. This is going to be extended weekend and I am going for landscape workshop with group. This painting is one I did few months back (sometime in June last year)during one such long weekend when I went to Murud with my wife and 4 and half years old son. It was nice little break from routine. Murud is less than 200 KM from Mumbai and its hence makes good weekend gateway. This costal area has lovely beaches which are not that crowded. Drive from Alibaug to Murud is enjoyable experience where on one side you see green forest and on other side sea plays hide and seek. To be honest I prefer this costal area over Goa. ( Though must tell you there are not many good hotels and other facilities here so you have to be prepared for some makeshift hotels or homestay if you can't get into some good resort).

For me it was memorable weekend . This is the only painting I did in those 4 days :)

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Adivasi house


Painting outdoor on location (plein air air for some) is addiction. I was traveling entire week and this weekend I went to my native place to be with my parents. Palghar ,my native is about 85 KMs from Mumbai which is less than 2 hours drive. I was tired but still carried art material with me . Though I was away from my regular painting g group, I joined Umesh Kawle who is know watercolor artist . We went to one of the near by Adivasi Village (Adivasi means original inhabitants, these are tribal people) . In this painting I have tried to capture the typical Adivasi house.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Flora Fountain


I think painting heritage structure is difficult as you can’t take much liberty in composition. These are well known structures and hence attempt should be there to paint what you can see. This is flora fountain (now area is known as Hutatma chowk -named after SamYukt Maharashtra movement martyrs).
The fort area in Mumbai where this fountain is situated is known for many such heritage structures and mainly for gothic style buildings

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Mumbai National Park Backlight

Borivali national park –Mumbai (Sanjay Gandhi National Park) is one good location for photographers and painters alike. This is probably the only national park which is situated within city. There is dense forest in the heart of this park and entry is restricted in those areas. But the area which is open to public is not less beautiful. This can be visited round the year. During rains the entire area turns green, during summer you could find entire forest covered with colorful gulmohars .In winters one can go for morning walk to enjoy the season. There is river which flows across national park and the trees bathing in backlight provide great backdrop. This is my attempt to catch that backlight.