Chronology of”Lofty Realms of Consciousness”
THE CHRONOLOGY OF “LOFTY REALMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
I always want to share chronology of my paintings with my friends and art lovers…but once I have the paints on my hands, I totally avoid touching the camera. But this time , I made it a point to keep it handy before I pick up the brush..
Let me start by saying that a painting is all about visual thinking.
The creative process begins mentally long back before I start a painting. First step is to choose a canvas size.
For landscapes, I choose long canvases . An old artist once told me that long and thin canvases add drama to landscapes,esp,if it is a widespread one I follow this tip till date!
The main decision is to choose the focal point of the painting and the style that I want to use !
I started by drawing a basic sketch, followed by painting the sky first!
As a rule,I always paint the backgrounds first, in order to gain a perspective,a 3d effect. Here I decided to use the palette knife for the running impressionist style.
I had already mentally made a note that I do not want to mimic reality here.I want to depict the openmindedness required for adapting to the world in different colours. In my paintings,I love to give an identity to the colours and the pictoral power.!
I next work the terrain by defining the darker areas of the rocky formation. The first few coatings are usually lose-although I need to be careful about the placements.
I paint the mountains in normal strokes so that the sky and the mountain demand separate focus and identity.
As a habit,after every stroke,I step back and assess my work- an oil painting needs that!
Now comes the technical details.The concentration needs to be much higher when establishing th
e light, dark and mid tones.
Since this is my creation, I need to remove all preconceived notions as to what an object looks like to others in reality,or else it stiffens me !
I keep working on it,everyday…as the oil colours need to dry up before the next coat.
I add on more details, shades,certaincolours change as the painting evolves.
In the picture on the right,you might not find much difference here as compared to the last photo-but much has been refined here, many tid bits added…..there have been coats after coats..!
The idea of showing the mountain thru a window,came to me suddenly.
As it is , I am always infatuated by doors, Windows and stairs!So I started to paint a w
indow, first in white..then changed the colour again.. and then again.
In fact , painting the window took me quite a few days
The beauty of the painting lies in capturing the essence with a few brush strokes and colours.
The mood of the painting is important.I am satisfied if I am able to depict my thinking , without overdoing the painting.
It is very tricky, for every artist , to know when to stop.
My favourite Van Gogh says”…..get over the notion that a tree trunk is brown, the sky is blue and the rocky mountains are grey”
So, amigos,here it is- a colourful perspective to the rocky mountains thru my eyes!
