Paradise Beach

 

Sunrise at the Promenade Beach

 

Lakkerwali Burj

 

Cauliflower-like plant

 My husband is the gardener in the family. When we went to the nursery, I really liked this one. So we bought it and none of us knows what it is called. My husband says it is kale, but I am not so sure about it. So we are just calling it cauliflower like thingy. 

Holly Stock

Not sure if this is the correct name of the flower. I have been particularly bad at remembering these flower names. 
 

After I painted this, I realised I had painted them horizontal instead of vertical, but other than that I’m quite happy with the way this turned out. 

Dianthus from the balcony garden

 This is from another painting session with my daughter on our balcony. We have both geraniums and dianthus in the same bright red. They are both so vivid. I like the shape of each petal in the Dianthus. The edges make it look like pencil shavings. 

I have been experimenting with different compositions for flowers so far this is one of the better ones. 

2021 Calendar

 

Waterfall next to the Beach

 

I have been savouring memories of all our past trips by painting them. This was at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park along CA-1.  It is not often that we see a waterfall drop right on a beach.

We did not have the time to go down to the beach, but the scenery from the view point was spectacular. We also saw scores of elephant seals lazing by the beach. 

While the scenery along the road was spectacular, it was really challenging driving on the mountainous roads after sunset considering the thick fog and poor visibility.

Somewhere near Bryce Canyon

This was one of our first trips in the US. We went to see Bryce Canyon with my husband’s colleagues. This was a brief stop over. There were a lot of little birds here. This was the first time I really felt the joy of birding. 

Yellow Pansy #2

 

Although the title of the post says Yellow Pansy #2, it really should be 4. I tried water colours, then gouache, then Gouache and ink. For one, I used Pitt Artist pens for the flower and ink for the leaves. I wouldn’t say I nailed it here, but I can move on now. 

Today being the beginning of 2021, this will serve as a good lesson in perseverance. 

Pink Gazania

 Just when I thought I was starting to get a hang of Gouache, this one proved challenging. My Pitt Artist pens saved the day. 

Dahlia

 

Continuing with the garden theme, here’s a painting of the red Dahlia from our balcony garden. My fingers froze by the time I finished the painting. Brrrrr. Last painting of the year 2020. 

Verbena

This is definitely the last painting of the day. I have always wanted to splatter on my painting, somehow I never got to it. I guess I never painted a subject that warranted splatter. So that was fun.

These flowers are quite tiny and come in a variety of colours.

 

Purple Petunia

 Here is another Petunia painting. This is the second of a series of 12 paintings my daughter and I have started for the 2021 calendar. It remains to be seen if I complete the 12 in time.

Of course my little painting factory churned out 7 much larger paintings in the same time it took me to do the 6.

Pink Petunias

 

This is the first of six floral paintings done on a Saturday afternoon (26/12/'20). These pink petunias are so delicate and the colour adds to that delicate feeling. This is my first water colour painting that I am ( kind of ) happy with.

I was listening to the love streaming of a Music Academy Concert by Vishnudev Namboothiri while I was painting.

Overall, a relaxing Saturday well spent!

Lily

 These lily plants have been growing taller and taller. We have been waiting forever for them to bloom. Can’t wait to find out what colour the flowers are going to be. 

Petunia

 

Another sketch from our balcony. For this one, I got lazy and combined two different Petunia plants in one sketch. One of them has flowers in such a brilliant purple, I could paint them over and over again. The other one is white and pink. 

It got too cold before I could finish it. So I went inside and finished the painting sipping a piping hot cup of tea. I almost dipped my brush in the tea quite a few times.

Gazania

Here's another painting of a flower from our little balcony garden. I made the mistake of telling my daughter I wanted to paint these flowers over the weekend. So all of Sunday, she was behind me to paint it. As the day wore on, she started rushing me to paint it before the flowers closed for the day. Like most other things I do, I started painting this in the very last minute. It did close fully by the time I was half way through the sketch. And it got chilly, this being December. So I went indoors and called it a day.

Gazania's colours are brilliant when it is fully open. I have to do another proper painting when the petals are fully open. But this time I am not telling my daughter before hand! (Can you see my eyes rolling?)

 

Kalanchoe Two ways

Here is a little painting of Kalanchoe plant from our balcony garden. My husband has been working very hard on gardening. This has been one of the few plants that has been rewarding him with flowers so far. The tiny little flowers have numerous tiny petals and the leaves themselves are arranged like flower petals.

I did the painting in Gouache first, then felt I had to do another study of the leaves, so I did a sketch with Faber Castell pens.

I am not good at remembering names of plants. I was calling it Galanchoe, then my 7-year old corrected me and said it is Kalanchoe with a K, not G. As proud as I am of her, it is not fun being corrected by a 7 year old. Huh. I told her at least I am not calling it Garbanzo.

Rishikesh trip in sketches