Self Portrait 1

I did the self portrait at home which was a challenge in itself. First I had to pick a place in my home where I wont be disturbed. Still I had to tell my family not to move anything. I had to set the light on my face to get good shadows and highlights, and I needed a mirror. I have mirrored closet doors, so it worked. Then I wanted to make my portrait without glasses. That was difficult when it came to eyes. With glasses on, my eyes looked bigger and without glasses, my eyes looked smaller and blurry. Definitely challenging.

Abstract - Paisley

It is difficult to think in abstract terms. So we were asked to pick a shape and use 3 analogous colors. I chose paisley as my shape. Then I chose orange, yellow, green as my colors. It was lot of work to do this painting. First I had to make several sizes and colors of paisley. Then I had to place them on the canvas. Paisley is an important shape in our culture. It is the shape of a mango, and is used in many clothing designs.

Favorite artist style

I chose Jamini Roy as the artist. I did a painting of my family using his style of painting. My husband Prasana, likes outdoor activities and is an engineer. My daughter Prajakta is artististic. She also likes to play piano. My younger daughter Sujata is into performing arts, dancing, flute. She also likes skulls. Our pet hamster Kichu liked seeds, carrots, and broccoli. The blue border represents me.

Monochromatic painting

This time we were to look through our window/door and paint a monochromatic painting. I chose blue. We could use highlights and shadows.

Still life 3

It was quite a challenge to do this painting. Our teacher had made an arrangement of objects. We were to use only solid colors and fill in different combinations of color.

Still life 2

This was an interesting still life. First we did still life with its original colors. Then we had to paint the same still life with different colors. I used 2 objects, strawberry and shell. The effect was very different.

Still Life 1

After many years I am going back to oil painting. So I decided to start from the beginning. I started attending Oil Painting class at West Valley, a straight 5 hour class on Fridays.
I started with a still objects painting with just black and white and its shades. We had to make our own black color instead of the black color from the tube. That was a bit challenging.