The Year That Was... 2013

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and have begun the new year in high spirits and great aspirations. 
2013 was a particularly happy and fulfilling year for me as an artist and art student, even though I sold only two paintings :). My paintings were selected in three juried shows, out of which two were my first time selections. :). I also won my first award ever at professional level in this year :)

Hyderabad Art Society Annual National Exhibition:

Tribal Boy, Charcoal on Paper, (11.7" X 16.5")

This drawing, Tribal Boy received Highly Commendable certificate at the Hyderabad Art Society's Annual National Exhibition 2013.

 SCZCC Nagpur Annual National Exhibition:

Woman from Ladakh, Charcoal on Paper, (15" X 11.5")

My first time selection at South Central Zone Cultural Centre's National Exhibition 2013.

Camlin South Zone Exhibition:

"Evening Light", Oil on Primed Paper, (22" X 15")

This painting and the next were my first time selections for the Camlin South Zone Annual Exhibition.

Evening's Glow, Watercolour on Paper, (20" X 14")

This painting won best entry award at the regional level. My first ever award at the professional level! :)

Thank you so much for reading this far. I thank all my readers and friends for their support and encouragement throughout the last year. I hope I will receive the same in the coming days too. :)

I pray everyone of us has a wonderfully fulfilling new year as artists and as human beings.

Best wishes .....

Seasons Greetings and Hungry Child

Hungry Child, Charcoal on Paper, (19" X 25") 

First of all, wish you all a very merry Christmas and a very happy new year. I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season. I did this from a reference photo I actually took hoping to make a landscape out of it. But later when I saw the photo on my computer I felt the gesture of this poor child as he drank something from the vessel very touching. Hence this drawing!
All comments and critiques are most welcome.

Shantaram

Shantaram, Charcoal on Paper, (15" X 11")

This is a portrait of a roadside fruit vendor near my place in Hyderabad. I tried a bit of abstraction here with the forehead merging in the background on the left side. I find charcoal a very flexible medium and quite amenable to such experimentation.
Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about this piece.
Thanks for visiting my blog.

Worker Woman

Tribal Woman, Charcoal on Paper, (15" X 11") 

This was done from a photograph of a group of ceramic workers who toil at various factories on the outskirts of our city, Hyderabad. I thought the sunlight on her face created a nice contrast which added to the drama of her dark skin against the white white scarf.

All comments and critiques are most welcome.

Old Man

"Old Man", Oil on Canvas, (18" X 14") 

I am posting on my blog after a long time. Have been doing lots of drawings lately, but nothing really good enough to be put up here. As always, comments and critiques are most welcome.
Thank you so much for stopping by.

Evening Light ... Oil

"Evening Light", Oil on Primed Paper, (22" X 15")

 

Photo reference Courtesy : Suresh Pethe

This is based on the photograph of a street scene in Pune, India. I loved this view  for the beautiful orange light just before sundown. Thank you Sureshji :)
This is my Sunday effort, painted on a half sheet. Did some tweaking here and there on Monday until I thought it was presentable. :) I have done a watercolour from this photo earlier (here). 
Which one do you think has come out better?
Thank you so much for visiting. All comments and critiques are most welcome.

Car and Jar

Car and Jar, Oil on Canvas Panel, (10" X 12") 

I love painting this wooden toy car. This one took me about 9 hours spread over a period of 3 days. I love to paint wet-in-wet and so it was quite a challenge to keep everything wet over the three days. 
Thank you so much for stopping by. All critiques and comments are most welcome.