Ajanta motifs inspired by Kerala mural painting...

A very good friend of mine will be moving to Houston shortly, and I want give her some thing that I have made as a parting gift. She is a person who loves my paintings more than other stuff that I make, so I have decided on giving her a painting. As they are taking a flight, I did not want to give her any thing big to carry and at the same time did not feel like giving her some thing small, as I definitely know that she is going to cherish this gift for a long time. So I have  finally decided on doing a set of two or three small paintings for her.

I have been planning to do the Ajanta motifs as a set from quiet some time and felt this is the best occasion, and decided on doing  Ajanta Hamsa, Lotus and Elephant as a set.

The post title says everything about these paintings.

I have always loved Ajanta Pantings ( These are the paintings done on the walls of  Buddhist cave monuments in the state of Maharastra,India. to learn more about the caves  Click here) The gracefulness in the paintings is one thing which always inspires me.
Lately Kerala murals have caught my eyes with their bright color palette. the idea of painting Ajanta motifs in Kerala mural color palette has come to min and ventured the same, the result I feel is stunningly beautiful and bright. With the beautiful results my fascination for Ajanta painting has grown and I'll definitely do some more paintings in this style.
I wish I would have done these paintings in water color and framed then in a dark color frame with a white matting, but instead did them on 10"x10" wooden panels as this will be easy for my friend to carry.
I know I have said enough for one post, here comes the pics.

Set of three Ajanta motifs

Ajanta Elephant

Ajanta Lotus

Ajanta Hamsa

I have painted a contrast color on the sides of the panels.

Radha Krishna with a small change...

 After finishing the stained wood Radha Krishna, I was not totally satisfied with the result, there was something that was bugging me, the finished picture was not giving the mood I was looking for.
Radha's eyes were looking drowsy, and there was no way I could fix them as it not a regular painting made with other media (like oils or acrylics) which can be fixed, resin and clay lines once dry  become hard like rock and can not be changed, and if I paint over resin the glossy ness disappears, yet I could not help myself from the urge of fixing them.
   I finally decided on changing the outline color of Radha's eye balls to black, which if did not work out can always be changed to white as the out lines were painted with acrylics. The minor change has changed the entire look of the painting and i'am pleased with the result.

                                                                          Before

                                                                         After

Some how the pictures are not doing justice to the painting, I have added glass pieces on the leaves,Krishna's head band and the peacock feathers and the look like white dots, so I took some closeup's
to show the details.

Broken glass pieces on Krishna's head band

Glass pieces on peacock feathers

Transparent glass beads on Radha's blouse

Stained wood Radha Krishna...

Just finished this latest piece, its 2' x 3', keeping my fingers crossed for 24 hours for it to dry completely without any mishaps.

Diyas for Diwali return gifts...

Having a Diwali party at my place and wanted to give small return gifts to the ladies, did not have enough time to make candle holders for every one, so instead bought these terracotta diyas from an Indian store.

Initially planned of giving the diyas as they are with a gift wrapping,but could not help myself from all the decorating ideas brainstorming and ended up embellisging them with some gold paint and kundans.

I feel the golden paint enhanced the intricate design ...

Finished painting them all, now time to add some kundans

Totally fell in love with the end result

Couldn't help from taking ore pics

Time to gift wrap

One down few more to go

Done packing, enjoyed every minute of the work and loved the end result, hope the ladies  will like them.

Diwali candle holders...

Madhubani inspired stained wood...

 

 

 

How to do a stained wood painting.....

Finally here comes the step by step procedure on how to do a stained wood painting.
The technique is named stained wood because it is done on a wooden panel with stained glass colors.I have done my first piece in India and it took me a while to figure out the materials here in US.The painting is  actually done using Resin, so I was looking for some kind of resin that is not very toxic and easy to work with.The following is the list of materials needed

• M seal (this is some thing I got from India and did not know how to replace it,this is used to block the colors from flowing into each other,in glass painting this is done by lead strips.A good quality of air dry clay, some thing that does not crack after it dries might be a good replacement,lead strips can also be used but i'am not sure if they stick on wood.
• Primed wooden panel,if you are using a wooden panel which is not primed, paint it with a coat of white emulsion paint which is easily available Homedepot.
• Tacky glue
• White acrylic paint
• Pebeo Gedeo resin
• Resin dyes
• Crafts popsicle sticks
• Disposable plastic containers
• Eye droppers

Transfer the design on to the wooden panel and roll m seal or clay into thin coils and stick the coils on the transferred design using tacky glue,make sure not to leave any openings as the color flows into each other and each part of the design should be completely sealed with out any gaps near the coil joints.At the edges try to end the coil exactly along the surface of the wooden panel,if you cut the coil short the color bleeds into another and if you leave it a little long the color flows along the coil and drips off,believe me it is easy than it sounds.

Once the M-seal or clay dries paint the lines with white acrylic paint.

Once the paint is dry you can start filling the colors using the resins.I used both the colored resin and the crystal resin along with dyes to get the colors that I desired.You can add dye to the colored resin to make the colors more intense.I used eye droppers to fill the colors in each part.Working with resin can be a little messy as it is very sticky ,this is the reason I could not take any pictures while mixing the dyes and resin, but here is a link to the video that shows hot to mix the resin
Mixing colored resin
Adding dye to resin

Mix the resin thoroughly and let it sit for 2-5 minutes before applying, so the painting dries really hard and does not bleed on hanging on the wall for a longer time.

Make sure to cover the work surface with paper as the surface becomes totally useless if  you accidentally drop some resin on it or if the resin drips from the wooden panel, it is a messy processes but the results look amazing.

Block printed gift bags...