I have painted Irises after a gap of few years. All my previous iris paintings have flowers of single colour. The ones now are bouquet of Irises of different colours. One bouquet has been painted with a flower pot and another without one. One has a dark background while the other has a light one. Which one do you think looks better?
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The first time I took Oil Painting classes was in a small town in the foothills of the mighty Himalayas in India. There was uncertainty in the province and our annual exams were postponed indefinitely. To make the most of the ample time available at hand, my parents enrolled me in to painting classes. Two of my close friends also joined. We would cycle to the painting teacher’s house together. There was a huge rectangular room where small tables were placed all along the periphery. The teacher was a young lady in her twenties with a year old baby whom she would put to sleep while she took classes.
The first day we had to draw horizontal and vertical lines free-hand on paper with pen or pencil. She explained all about oil paintings – how oil paintings last a long time, and retain their colour, why the supplies ae expensive, and that once the painting is dry we can paint even white over dark Then we had to decide which painting we wanted to paint first – Landscape, Floral, Still Life, or Portrait. Once each student decided on the genre the teacher passed around many painting reference photos and asked the students to pick a particular painting. She gave us a list of supplies that we were supposed to bring the next day. The size of the hardboard was suggested. This included the Hardboard of the suggested size to be bought from the hardware store, turpentine oil, linseed oil, colours, brushes, a palette, and rag for cleaning.
Next day armed with all the stuff we reached our class at 4 PM. The class used to be from 4 PM to 6 PM six days a week at vey nominal fee. Ten to twelve of us would be painting there each day with the instructor giving us directions periodically. She taught us how to make new colours from the 12 colours in the pack. I run out to Titanium White within the first few days. I realised that while painting white colour is used most. So I bought a big tube of titanium white.I painted the following three paintings 38 years ago in mid-teens in three months of coaching whereas both my friends were able to complete only two paintings each.
My first oil painting
My second oil painting
My third oil painting
None of these was a floral painting, the genre which I have been pursuing since 2011. In the past 11 years, I have painted 100s of paintings. I gifted them in initial years, As my skill improved, my paintings started selling. In 2018 I set up this wordpress site to protect the copy right of my paintings. 10 years ago I had done research social media marketing and came to know that if I put my paintings on Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram then that company gets the copyright. So I upload the painting on WordPress and after that share on social media. I have integrated the social media and developed an order in which each post or page is shared.
My paintings adorn the Happy Homes of relatives, friends and generous patrons.
Red Roses in a Copper Vase
Roses in a Glass Vase
Yellow Roses in a Copper Vase
Pink Roses in a White Vase
This is how the four small paintings put together look.
You can view all my roses paintings here.
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For a while I have thinking about painting cherries. Following are some of the compositions with cherries that I have painted. Some of the cherries have toppled over the bowls and create movement in the paintings.
Cherries in a Glass Bowl
For the darkest cherries, I used crimson, vermillion and a bit of ultramarine blue. For the brightest parts vermillion was mixed with cadmium yellow and white. For highlights white and lemon yellow were added to the reds.
Cherries in a Blue Bowl
The blue bowl was painted using cobalt blue and later on the flowers were added.
Cherries in a Bone China Bowl
The white bowl was painted by adding lemon yellow to white for the lighted part and bit of crimson and ultramarine to titanium white for the shaded parts.
Cherries on a Plate
The shaded parts in and around the plate give it its shape. This is how the four paintings put together look.
You can view my other still life paintings here.
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Tulips in a Crystal Vase is an original oil painting. A triangular crystal vase has been painted in this composition, although only one face is visible. As the crystal objects have numerous edges, these shine with different intensity as the light falls on them. An attempt has been made to capture this property of the material. The window shows view outside and creates depth in the painting. Tulips merrily swing to the sides. The green foliage provides a contrast to the flowers. The same is the effect of crystal vase on a dark table top.
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Oil Paintings by Navdeep Kular 