Odes to Common Things- Everyday Paintings

I think the banal is beautiful. Put a spotlight on a pair of scissors and it will transform into the most paint worthy subject. These paintings are from my daily paintings collection and they feature everyday objects. I finish my daily paintings in one sustained burst of inspiration. Each of these works have been executed in under four hours. I am a big fan of Pablo Neruda and his lyrical works on common everyday things. These artworks have been inspired by his poetry as well..

"Hydrangeas"

9.5"X9.5"

Acrylic on canvas paper

SOLD

USD $125

"Purple Haze"

8.5""X10.5"

Acrylic on Canvas weave paper

USD $125

Available

"White Beauty"

Acrylic on Canvas weave paper

USD $125

Available

 When I painted these two, I thought of my kids :-D

"I No Talk To You!"

7.5"X6"

Acrylic on Canvas weave paper

USD $125

Available

"I'm Single"

7.5"X6"

Acrylic on canvas weave paper

USD $125

Available

At the fish market, I asked the old fishmonger if I could click some pics of his fish in different poses. Of course he thought I was nuts, but strangely, he agreed! :-)

"Flashy Fish"

6"X8"

Acrylic on Canvas weave paper

USD $150

Available

"The Gossiping Cranberries"

5.2"X5.2"

Acrylic on Canvas weave paper

USD $100

Available

"I Think She's Cute"

5.2"X5.2"

Acrylic on Canvas weave paper

USD $100

Available

"Look Out The Window"

8.5"X10"

Acrylic on canvas weave paper

USD $175

Available

"Cups in the Sun"

8"X6"

Acrylic on canvas weave paper

USD $175

Available

                                                             

 "Brown Kashayam Kuppi"

Acrylic on canvas paper

10"X7.5"

USD $150

Available

                                                                           

"Brown Kuppi II"

Acrylic on canvas paper

10"X7.5"

USD $150

Available

                                                   

                                                                   

"One Kuppi"

Acrylic on paper

11.5"X8"

USD $150

Available

                                                                      

"Lone Peony"

Acrylic on canvas paper

6"X8"

USD $150

Available

"Peonies in the Sun"

Acrylic on paper

12"X10"

USD $250

Available

                                                  

 
                                                                   "In Full Bloom"

Acrylic on canvas paper

10"X7"

USD $150

Available          

                                                                         

"Queen Rose"

Acrylic on canvas paper

7.5"X10.5"

USD $150

Available

                                                                     

Motley Couple"

Acrylic on canvas paper

7.5"X10.5"

USD $150

Available

                                                                

"Two's a Company"

Acrylic on paper

13"X10"

USD $250

Available

                           

                                                                   

  "Randu Peggu"

Acrylic on Canvas paper

10"X11.5"

USD $300

Available

"Wine Bottle"

Acrylic on canvas paper

10"X7.5"

USD $200

Available

                                                               

"Peppy Juice"

Acrylic on canvas paper

10"X7.5"

USD $200

Available

"I Got You Some Parsley, Babes"

Acrylic on canvas paper

10"X7.5"

USD $250

Available

                                                                             "Broken Egg"

Acrylic on paper

10"X9"

USD $150

Available

"Coffee Stain"
Acrylic on paper
8"X7.5"
USD $125
Available

"The Key"
6"X8"
Acrylic on canvas paper
USD$100
Available

"Chaavi 1"
Acrylic on canvas paper
7"X5"
USD $75
Available

"Chaavi 2"
Acrylic on canvas paper
5.5"X5.5"
USD $75
Available

"Itsy Pearl"
Acrylic on canvas paper
7.5"X7.5"
USD $75
SOLD

"Cooked Motta"
Acrylic on canvas paper
6"X7.5"
USD $100
Available

"Soul"
Acrylic on canvas paper
10"X7"
USD $200
Available

"Kick Start"
Acrylic on canvas paper"
10"X7.5"
USD $150
Available

"Allies"
Acrylic on canvas paper
10"X7.5"
USD $200
Available

"Kindi"
Acrylic on canvas paper
10"X7.5"
USD $150
Available

A demo of the Method in the Madness

Friends have been mailing to ask how I work with my dots and dashes and make them look like light and reflections. I promised on FB that I would make a canvas and walk them through my process. So, I decided on this simple painting as a demonstration :-)

This is the path that you take to walk up to my apartment complex at Thomson 800. When it rains, and the beautiful street lamps throw their reflections, the walkway with its cobbled stones, takes on the charm of  an old quaint street somewhere in a European city...

The other day when it rained, I shot this photo of the walkway. I am going to use it as my "base" to work with. When I say base, I mean it becomes the idea for the canvas. I am not a photo realist and I like to make the picture " my own". As the work progresses, I change colours and add details that might not be there. Artistic license ;-)

This photo is dull but I will use it to give me an idea of the lights and their reflections.

1.) I first make a pencil sketch of the scene. Using perspective lines, I draw the walkway and the streetlights. The building at the back is Braddell View, another apartment complex.

2.) I start by blocking in the darker values. I love this bit. The fun of being an expressionist lies in the freedom to cross hatch and patch the strokes how you like ( of course, experience plays a big role here! ). Go with the flow for now...Around the streetlights, the values are lighter because the foliage is lit up by the lights.

3.) The sky is painted in darker blues and purples. I fill in some reds and yellows on the left side.

I leave the streetlights canvas white for now.

4.) Ok, this photo of the painting got messed up because of the lighting. It suddenly got super sunny outside and the studio was bathed in light. Anyway, as you can see, I filled in basic browns and mossy greens for the walkway and also added some pale yellowish white for where the reflections will be.

5.)What I have done next is the fun part. Taking a thin brush, I dipped it in pure white and put dabs. Here and there. If you look at this photo up close, you will see that the dabs now represent lights! I also detailed the building at the back. The tiny white spots have now become lights at the windows...

6.)I detail the foliage on the right. Tiny mossy green dabs around the streetlights highlight the leaves of the trees.             

7.) I highlight the whites on the road and put pure white dabs in the middle of the streetlight to make them bright white. And well, we are done! ;-)

As you can see, I have made the photo from which I worked with, "my own". 

Through the Lens of Rain and Shine- A Toast to Singapore, Life and Love

My current series is on Singapore! I have made 18 so far. Initially, I had planned to make about 35-40 paintings on the city state and then wrap the series up. But later, I decided that I would rather keep this as an open ended project. As long as I live here, there will be sights and sounds that inspire me and i want to feel free to paint them and add them to the series. All these canvases are based on places in Singapore that I hang out frequently at. The city turns out to be a fabulous subject! I will be uploading paintings here as and when I finish them, over the next few months, so watch this space for the newest in the series...

                                                         "Little India"
                                                        Acrylic on Canvas paper
                                                          20"X24" USD $ 1000
                                                            Available

I like hanging out on North Bridge Road. Near Chinatown, there is a market where I go pick up materials for my sewing projects.The alleys are full of quaint cafes and tiny shops, a stark contrast to the towering skyscrapers of the business district. I am an alley cat and this is one of my favorite haunts.

                                                                "North Bridge Road"
                                                              Acrylic on Canvas Paper
                                                                       20"X24"
                                                                        Sold ( USD $1000)


                               

Friends who have long term plans around Singapore often talk of which condos to invest in. I keep telling Vivek that if we ever plan to settle here, we should think of buying a little Shop House instead! You know, one level for a very basic residence, with the rest of the little structure divided into two studios ( a him and her kind of thing). A bright blue shop house with a cosy internal courtyard, clay tiled roofs, wooden steps, floors and beams would be so awesome. Of course I later found out that even a dilapidated old shop house costs a bomb !

These days I admire pretty shop houses. Can't have them , but can paint them.. Somethings in life are free

                                                           "Shop Houses, Boat Quay"
                                                           Acrylic on Canvas Paper
                                                             20"X24"  USD $ 1000
                                                                   Available

"Mariaman Koil, Chinatown"

Acrylic on Canvas Paper

20"X24" USD $ 1200

Available

Last year, I saw a rather strange sight outside Singapore Art Museum. A couple, dressed in wedding finery ran out onto the footpath where an enthusiastic photographer busily clicked them. At one point, he was on the ground on his belly, trying to get some weird angle shot of the happy couple. What they were doing there, I have no clue. Many passers by stopped to look and smile. Then the young couple got their cell phones out,walked towards the Dome Cafe engrossed in separate conversations, hung around for a bit and then walked hand in hand to Bras Basah street... Maybe they were actors. Maybe they were a real life couple. Whoever they were, it was a sight to remember...

Happy Anniversary Vivek!

"Kissing Couple, Bras Basah"

Acrylic on Canvas paper

20"X24"  USD $1000

Available

This is the path that leads up to my apartment. When it rains and the lights come on, it takes on the character of cobbled roads in some European town. 

"Walkway to Thomson 800"

Acrylic on Canvas paper

USD $ 700

Available

I go to music school at Bugis. I wait for Wednesday evenings- the day I wear my best and feel every bit a pianist  . Class gets over pretty late but Bugis never sleeps. If I were to remove all people and be the one lone human being on the street below school, it would look like this I suppose...

"Bugis by night"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $700

Available

I live on Thomson Road. Further up, is were I shop ( the veggies, groceries kind of shopping mind you; not the Singaporean sense of shopping! ). A few months back, I was caught in a downpour out there, pretty late at night...The roads were kind of deserted and the lights were brilliantly reflected on the wet tar. Here it is in paints

"Downpour on Upper Thomson Road"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $ 650

Available

The signal turned green and the traffic thundered below. I stood and watched the rain water crackle...

"Bus, Bridge and Bougainvillea"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $ 800

Available

A few weeks back, my 5 year old and I were out grocery shopping. It must have been 3 in the afternoon and deep blue-grey thunderclouds were gathering in the skies. We were taking the steps up the over-bridge when he pointed to the lush bougainvillea along the sides and said with the most emphatic wave of his hand, " I want that painted". 

"Pink Bougainvillae"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $1000

Available

"Before the Rains, Pulau Ubin"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $850

Available

I used to have a "my" park bench when I was in Bangalore. I would buy a platform ticket at Cantonment Station and sit there on the weekends, in the afternoons, sketching. This was a phase, back in '01. I later found another "my" park bench in Banaswadi in a wooded pocket near my house. My children would go cycling and I would sketch. I found a "my" park bench out here too. I sit there in the mornings once or twice a week and draw. The beauty is, no matter where you go in the world, there will always be a "my" park bench out there...

"My Park Bench, Macritchie Reservoir"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $1000

Available

On most days, this is the last thing I see before I go home...

"Gold Over Glass, Sunset at Macritchie"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $1000

Sold

Some mornings, I sit at this mini gazebo and watch the water. My kids ( who have more say in my artistic process than even the most controlling agent ever could!), think I need to get away from Macritchie and concentrate on the "cityscape" again. But I have two or three more coming in the water and nature aspect of Singapore before I go back to painting the pretty street lights, buildings and rainy alleys and roads again...

"Misty Peace, Macritchie Reservoir"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $1000

Available

Every time I pass this trellis full of ixora inflorescence at Macritchie, I think that I should paint it and call it Trellis and Ixora. Just to make it sound crazily mythological. Like Theseus and Ariadne or... Tristan and Isolde... Trellis and Ixora! heheheh....

"Trellis and Ixora"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $ 1000

Available

Skyping with an old pal the other day, I got ribbed big time about how the Singapore series was just was not reflecting any of the so called "opulent living" facet of the land where everyone knows exactly what the phrase " No Money, No Honey" means . I explained that the series was not really a documentation of the usual scenes in Singapore but rather a collection of my experiences and favorite spots. So Porsches and Penthouses don't exactly figure in that scheme of things...

There is this pretty cafe in a side alley on Upper Thomson road that is always brightly lit. Not an upmarket joint by any stretch of imagination but guess what I found parked in front of it one day when I went grocery shopping?

"Somebody's Audi"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $ 1000

Available

My favourite place in Singapore- Arab Street. Possibly, one of the few places in the world where you can walk into deserted alleys and come out the other end with pretty much most things intact. You know- cash, camera, chastity....This part of the city reminds me of the souks of my childhood days.

"Motley Alley, Arab Street"

Acrylic on Canvas paper

USD $ 1000

Available

I had shot a lot of photos at the very serene Chinese Garden. However, sifting through all the shots later, I was not really inspired by any of the clicks I had taken. That's when FB friend and former Singapore resident,Anoop Bhat came to the rescue. He sent me a few clicks that he had shot at Chinese Garden. Two of them were unusual in their choice of subject as well as atmospheric beauty. 

I will be painting in Osaka and Kyoto in the early part of '14. I hope to capture cherry blossoms in their delicate glory when I am there. Till, then, I shall be happy with this "faux" cherry tree that Anoop clicked  

"Moody Sky and Faux Cherry Tree, Chinese Garden"

Acrylic on canvas paper

USD $ 850

Available