Tribute to Indian Army @Siachen

Tribute to Brave brothers

On 3 February 2016, an avalanche hit an Indian military base in northern Siachen Glacier region, trapping 10 soldiers under deep snow.. the avalanche struck the camp located in the northern Siachen Glacier, at a height of 19,600 feet, in the early hours.. Over the years, India has invested heavily in procuring high-quality equipment. The Army has streamlined procedures for better acclimatisation, and this has helped to cut casualties. However, all that is no guarantee against the avalanche of the sort that hit the camp on Wednesday. On an average, India spends Rs. 5 crore a day for maintaining troops on the glacier

It is a sad thing to happen, those sons of Bharat mata who were just doing their duty just because of enemity between 2 countries lost their life due to this natures wrath !! As usual we all get into social media and write so many things about them.. Not sure if anything really gets done at the end to those poor folks who lost their son/dauthger, However I am one among them and sitting miles far from the country couldnt do much apart from donating some to the account which one charity started ! 

I felt let me paint one which I can call as 'Tribute to our soldiers' and set off to paint this one on a 50x40 cms canvas board, earlier I started one which turned out to be so serene and peaceful which I didnt want to call as siachen glacier :( 

Painting a glacier with acrylic is bit difficult as paint doesnt come that smooth when you use a palette knife, So was searching through internet to see instructions on how to paint such snow clad mountaints without a knife and with Acrylic, Found one very informative old video and followed it to do the mountains.. Didnt come that well, however I was satisfied with the outcome ! 

Bit wierd part of the painting was, I had almost half of the canvas empty when I was done with mountains, may be my calculation of how much space mountains would take was wrong.. Thus decided to paint snow mountains and it was bit hard ;) as it had to look like snow mountains and not sand dunes ;) Then it was time for 2 soldiers and their small makeshift place and beloved TRICOLOR of India... 

Here it is.. RIP Our beloved soldiers ! Thanks for guarding our borders so that we can live safely in our magnificient country 

Lake in Mountain range..

Calm lake in mountains..

Just few weeks back, we lost our mighty soldiers for a natural disaster in Siachen, Our soldiers were guarding the highest battleground in the world and nature struck.. brought a big avalanche which caused martyrdom for 10 Indian soldiers, One of them fought well but finally gave up after reaching hospital.. 

Since that incident, I wanted to paint one as a tribute to them (best I could do apart from some donations to those families which I am still searching how to do) who guard our boarders and provide a safe country to live in.. 

Thus thought of painting the glaciers and an Indian flag with some soldiers, Picked up a large canvas board and set off to paint it on a valentine's day ;)

While I have watched many videos of painting snow-clad mountains with palate knife, they all have been Oil paintings and they weren't Acrylic, As I said earlier.. I have not yet started Oil as it requires a separate room to paint and I aint have one yet ! Thought I can do the same technique with acrylic and started off with a lazy background, Now when I look at the painting, I feel bit sad that I did not pay much attention to those clouds.. It looks like a small child has painted it.. However my all concentration was on mountains and may be I need to think more towards background in next paintings.. 

However I set off with greyish mountains and then with my cheap palate knife (which is plastic yet..) tried to get the feel of snowclad mountains, tried multiple times with different textures etc but it wasnt coming.. may be I spent over 2 hours just on mountains and it wont come good for some reason, I lost count of how many times I tried those same damn knife techniques.. but it aint come man !!! Finally picked up my brush.. smoothened the whole surface back to greyish and then using a normal acrylic brush tried to paint the snow as best I can.. 

Once mountains were in some shape (I had lost my patience by then to make it any better), realized that good half of canvas was still empty and I had no clue how to get so much snowy terrain where I can depict soldiers and camp etc.. So decided to make a lake instead :) and then pine trees and so on and so forth.. Went on with and enjoyed every bit of lake and trees so much that I literally forgot that I wanted to make a painting which looks harsh climate and not a serene lake view :(

Once It reached condition, I decided not to go for soldiers and flag as it wont make justice to the real harsh condition where they live in Siachen.. It may look like they are living in a Hakuna Matata paradise! So left it there and signed the canvas.. 

I am satisfied with the lake and trees etc, however mountains could have been better and my search for better painting techniques for snowclad mountains in acrylics continues.. May be now its time for me to search for a teacher who can get me on right track :) Youtube cant get you everything !! 

Hope you like it... 

Constellation - Night Sky !!

Vibrant Night Sky

Not sure how and what to write about this one.. It was a pure experiment with no intention, no expectation neither any plans on what I really want to do. There is a reason behind it.. While browsing through videos for cosmos or night sky, have come across many and by just looking at how its painted.. I never thought I would even try that.. mostly they were Oil and as I do not have a separate room for painting, I havent started Oil yet ! Secondly they were too tough even to follow ! Saw a video and was inspired again to pickup brush and draw a imaginary constellation on a black canvas

Still, One of the thursday evenings.. Picked up a 50x40 Canvas board and a picture for reference (found through google) and set off to paint a Night Sky painting. My daughter and son were interested to help me in painting, so took their help to paint a white canvas with Black & Gesso and set it to dry for few hours.. (Now both claim that this painting was done by 3 of us together)

I used a lot of Ultramarine & Phthalo Blue for background, Wanted to give a dark bluish still a blackish background with a clear hint of violet (used red and green mixture as I didnt buy violet paint till that time).. Then it was time for the central structure (which I dont know what to name as) I tried to be ON MY OWN to paint this one.. Did a streak of white & used bluish on the curves to give it a twisting feel.. Base was the toughest one and worked on it for at least half an hour and moved up and up to the top..

Stars was the easiest to do :) Used my daughters used brush.. dipped it in titanium white acrylic and sprayed evenly.. and it did give a good effect 

At the base, I wanted to draw a straight cliff and some pine tress on it.. All in Black, However the remaining part of the canvas was lot and it would have looked quite ugly if I had painted 40% of the canvas in black.. Cant do anything else too because in night sky, you may not see anything other than a black cliff :) 

So thought of painting some high mountains with a brownish and black shade, Fortunately mountains came well in first attempt (I am not good with mountains, somehow I dont get it !!) wanted to go on and on with some improvements but my first reviewer of paintings (my wife) opposed that Idea and advised not the screw up the one which looks good now ! 

So here is my first ever dark night painting ! 

AUM

AUM 

Long Awaited AUM on a canvas..

Even before I started this journey of painting, Always had a wish to draw a AUM which I can eventually use for meditation, Have read many books on meditation, have been to few sessions etc, but could never sit idle and do NOTHING !! 

When we were in India, I went in search of a sticker of AUM which I planned to stick to the canvas, paint around it and then take it out.. I didnt want to paint that rather paint the whole surrounding, Somehow did not find a big one.. so I had to paint it by myself

I did this on a 50x50 canvas board.. Primed it with Gesso & Titanium white, let it dry for few hours and started off with a clean orange across the canvas.. Then it was time for deep yellow to blend it with orange to give a glow ! Used a pencil to write AUM and once I was done with first round, it did look good but there was no 'grande' look.. As this AUM is now going through somewhat rough time in India (birthplace of Hinduism), Why not have it bit vibrant:) Thus.... here is what it became at the end.. 

I personally love this painting, It eminates a serence yet vibrance through mix of colors as well as sheer power of AUM

When I shared it with friends, one who lives in Frankfurt asked if he can have it :) Its hard for me to say NO to great friends and thus its now waiting to be framed and gifted to a great friend..  

Also happens to be my 21st Painting :) Good that it was AUM.. 

Pencil Drawings..

Pencil Drawings

I used to do pencil drawings right from childhood, if not very good.. I was doing it time to time and just as a time pass, never been serious on that and thus I even do not have those with me now :) which I did before marriage, After marriage.. my wife has been caring for those and here are some which I did to infuse interest of drawing to our son Naman.. these were done from 2008 onwards.. Simple pencil and drawing paper.. mostly A4 sizes.. 

I do plan to restart the pencil drawings once craze of paintings mellows down :)

For Amgele Ashray (Our home)

Amgele Ashray

After 20 days of superb vacation at home (seriously this was one of the best vacations ever as we didnt do anything :) we enjoyed family time all the days and complete Shrusthi at Anantheshwar temple after many many years) it was time for us to packup and start back to Berlin.. I was feeling bad that I did not paint one for our home which my mom has been hinting since the first painting, I said I will do it once I am back in Berlin..... But could read my Mom very well, she wanted one painting before we start to Berlin..

30th evening was our flight from Manglore, All bags packed.. only my painting kit yet to get into the last bag, 2 big canvas left (from my first day shopping in school book company), somehow I was not feeling good about packing painting kit without painting one for our home.... Surprisingly, Mom who is always eager to get packings done... was also supporting that idea.. so I started one on the biggest canvas board I have ever painted..  

When I shared this painting with some of my good friends who provide valuable feedback, one from UK said few great words about the meaning of this.. and I do agree with him.. While looking at this painting what it signifies (at least its my version and its my painting so ;) I do have a say) is that 2 birds are you and your spouse.. Your parents very near to you right on upper branch.... and the birds which are flying out are those whom you have helped, nurtured, thought how to fly and mentored all along.. they arent going too far, they are going to acheive something just like what you did years ago.. Bench is the place where you sat with your kids sharing them life lessons, teaching them how to be humans than being a rich person, sharing great stories from our rich culture... 

When I finished.. Amma and Aanu (Dad) were so pleased and very happy to give this painting a prime place in living room. Took around 90-120 minutes for this one (may be) let all brushes dry and packed them in bags and we were off to Berlin in few hours............ 

It is framed and resides in Amgele Ashray (Amgele = Hamara, Ours in konkani) Ashray is name of our home ! 

Lusiya, Lake, Sunset and A Big Tree...........

Movie and a Painting.... 

There is no explaination for the sense of satisfaction and greatfulness you feel when you are with your entire family.. Parents, Brother (whom I met with family at home after many years), 2 great cousins who are nothing less than own brothers, Mhaave all under one roof in Amgele Ashray.. What else you can ask for.. Eating great and delicious food from my amma's kitchen, laying around and then eat again and chat chat and chat all day..

One of the evenings, we decided to watch Lusiya - A Kannada crowd funded movie and I thought is it not a great idea to paint while we all watch a movie.. 

So picked up all my aayudhas (arms..) and set off to paint on a canvas board 40x30 with only acrylics and no other experimental stuffs.. 

Used Orange and yellow extensively and paused many many times to understand most complex movie in Kannada (at least whatever I have seen so far) and also to listen to nonstop comments (in favor of director) from my brother who happens to be one of the crowd funder of the project.... Sun came very well and tree could have been bit better, however ended it just when movie was coming to and end.. 

My brother framed it and took it to Banglore, Now its in Banglore.. I liked it.. and only few more days left in India and want to paint one for our home - Ashray, something which has deep meaning in it..