Finalist @ BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009 !!!

Male and female of Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
and Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandrii)
along with the plant Red Buck-eye (Aesculus pavia)

This hummingbird painting has been nominated a finalist in the World Birds category of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009 competition !!!!The competition is believed to have attracted over 700 entries, out of which 122 paintings have been shortlisted amongst 14 different categories.

Now, i got to send the original painting for the final round of judging at Hampshire, England. Each category will have just one winner. and their artwork will be displayed at the annual exhibition of the Marwell International Wildlife Art Society and published in BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Well.. getting through this final round is certainly a tough luck with the many amazing artists by my side. But however, just to know that out of more than 700 entries, they turned to look again at my painting... is an incredible feeling by itself !!!

You could also take a peek at the felis blog.

My tiny painting studio

Here.. here it is! My small cute little painting area. A rack for all my colourful assortment of paints, brushes and a crowded book rack in the corner. A very tiny area to work... but i guess its okay for the kind of work am doing now. Don't need a very large space for it. I guess its quiet ideal...

However... my dream of a 'travel artist' still remains! Who would resist the idea of travelling around the globe, exploring and painting from anywhere! Hope its not a very far-fetched dream...

Wildlife Art Books

Well... here is the slowly and gradually growing Wildlife art books collection.
Everytime i brush through the pages, it excites and inspires me ever more.
Am sincerely thankful to my ever encouraging friends and brother, who have helped add to this treasured collection of mine! And ofcourse, happy with myself too, to have invested on some of these beautiful books every now and then!
Hope my collection keeps growing!

The 'Hatching'

A4 size; Black pen on paper; Using a technique of ‘hatching’ and ‘cross-hatching’ for the King hatchlings ! This technique is done by drawing closely spaced parallel lines to create tonal or shading effects.

After having glued myself to Bangalore for a few months, immersed in painting, I finally got a chance to take off to the Western Ghats, where (my brother, Sandesh) and the filming crew were shooting a documentary for National Geographic about King Cobras! The crew, along with Gowri Shankar and the many volunteers at ARRS (Agumbe Rainforest Research Station) had put in many weeks of radio tracking the King, observing and recording its behavior and filming the nest building in the wild. Now, it was time for the baby kings to break open their shells and come out into their whole new wild world. And I was lucky enough to land up at Agumbe right in time for this ! It was early August.

I sat watching the heads pop out, everything in slow motion, taking their own sweet time to absorb their new surroundings and venture out boldly, leaving behind their safe haven. With their heads out, they stood in the same position, sometimes for hours together, as if everything had been paused. Thus giving me ample enough time to sit in front of them and doodle rough sketches in my field-journal. And presented above is the final sketch of the baby kings hatching. Made this after i got back to Bangalore.

Wild flowers from Turahalli

More of my rough -in-the-field- journal sketches !
A few wildflowers from Turahalli. Well, thanks to Ravee (http://www.weatheredwind.org/notes/), my interest in wildflowers has slowly bloomed too. Hidden between the grass, are these tiny coloured forms, so *unique* and distinct from one another.... which i would have otherwise walked past without a glance.

With over 500 species of Aristolochia around the world... I was more than priviledged to stumble upon one of its kind at Turahalli. A unique flower structure... couldn't resist but sketch it ! Am amazed by this flower and am eagerly waiting to see them in bloom again ! Its become one amongst my favourite flowers!! :) (No sooner have i said this... the very next day, a peep through my window, i saw the same Aristolochia creeper and to add to my sudden discovery... it was in bloom too!!! Can you beat that!) How i wish, similarly, all my *eagerly waiting* thoughts come true too !
The Ground Star (Curculigo orchidoies) is one amongst the common plants of Turahalli... The star shaped pretty yellow flowers grow at the base of the plant, touching the ground.
Commelina forskalaei is the kidney-shaped petals at the bottom right of the attached page. The petals are bluish.

Peeping through the grass....

Leopards on the prowl

Did these sketches a few months back. Have used the -stippling method- for two of them... its mainly by doing the whole illustration by using fine dots to show the various tones and depth.
I havn't got to see too many leopards in the wild. I got lucky to see my first leopard 3 years back in September 2005 ... two in one day @ Bandipur NP. Will remain as the most unforgetful interesting day for me. Had also got to see my first sloth bear on the same day too! There was no limits to my joy that day! :)
Amongst the many leopard sketches i did... i guess i can pick out just these three that can be kinda -showable- to people. The one below, i used indian ink. However, i did prefer the stipplings better.After doing these leopard sketches, i have realised how difficult it is to sketch the cat family. Especially, all those spots on the leopard !! *sigh* !!

"Growl",the T-shirt

The finest of my T-shirt paintings till date ! I sure did have a lot of enthusiasm to do it.
Makes a more special T-shirt for this was my very first air-brushed work !
With a thousand questions in my mind, if i should air-brush it or stick to my usual paint brush.... i decided to go with the air-brush after a lot of talking and convincing my own mind. It was supposed to be a birthday gift so i absolutely didn't want to spoil it no matter what. So, however, i thought i will start with the air-brush and just in case i spoil it, i will switch over to my more comfortable paintbrush ! But well, by the end of it, i have been more happier than ever.
I first worked on the front image of the tiger in the bottom corner of the T-shirt , later did the profile face of the growler !
I use an Iwata HP C+ Airbrush and an Iwata Sprint Jet Air-compressor. Now... (For the ones who are curious to know more...) What is an Airbrush ??!
Its like a miniature Spray gun. Its a small pen-like tool which sprays a fine mist of paint with a constant air pressure from the compressor. As i use the double action airbrush technique, it gives more control over the air pressure and paint flow. It did take quite a bit of practice and sheets of newsprints doodled with short and long lines going in all directions, thin and thick; circles and curves, to get a better control of the new tool. It will only get better and better with more practice am sure. Have been enjoying this tool the best oflate. The main drawback is that its a bit expensive and has to be totally cared for. After every use it needs to be cleaned throughly, if not, its absolutely not worth investing in. Just as i thought i was getting a better hang of the airbrush, a tiny part as small as 3 mm, has got damaged :( . I believe its one of the parts that gets worn out every now and then. Its been 2 months now and am still waiting for the spare part. Need to get in touch with someone who is coming to India asap and its only available in the US of A.
Hoping to get a better hand on this instrument very soon ! I so need that spare part, right now!!

Ruby-throated Hummingbird & Trumpet Vine

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) and Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans)

This painting got auctioned in the US just last month!

Its been a year since i made this painting. And i must say, i spent sooo much time on this one. I was trying to get a different background effect, only later, to learn that the effect is possible with an Airbrush!

This painting was a donation to the Ocelot Festival, as they were raising funds for the conservation of Ocelots. However, am excited coz it's the first auction of my painting !! :) I believe they got it framed and it was looking pretty !! Now, i sit here and wonder on which wall it is hanging!

Eravikulam National Park... my journal pages

THE ROLLING GRASSLANDS - AN ISLAND OF THEIR OWN
25th - 31st December, 2007

I was quite fortunate enough to tag along with my brother to Eravikulam National Park. Sure enough, i had seen pictures, video clippings and heard about all the words of praise about this place i was going to visit. But i can say -nothing,absolutely nothing- can come close to *just being there* and seeing the beauty that stands in front of you! The Landscape only got better and better... mountains and valleys that run along till as faaaaar as your eyes can see; and nestled in between some of the valleys are dense Sholas or mini-rainforests, if you can call it! Being the month of December, the grassland was ochreish-greenish-brown. So untouched, so pristine! I so consider myself one of the luckiest!
I hiked deeper into the national park with Sandesh, Mandi, Sara and 15 other porters, who were carrying all the filming equipment and ration for the week.Not to mention,i would be the first person to start the hike and no sooner all the porters carrying much heavier baggage than me would run along next to me, leaving me trotting behind at the end of the trail!! I sure did make it to the hut with a smile though! You don't tend to know the meaning of a 'frown' in that landscape. Also, i must confess, except for the beginning uphill, the later part of the hike is not too bad (thankfully) ! :)

I was so mesmerised by the place that i was smiling throughout and soon sat to do a quick pen & ink sketch of the landscape in front of me in my journal. This is the view from the Eravikulam hut which faces a stream and the 'kathu-malai' mountain in front of us. To the left is a quick pencil sketch of the skull of a Sambar deer.

The next day early morning, went up to see the morning light and the spell of shadows as the sun came up, on the mighty Anaimudi and its valleys around. It was beautiful! Anaimudi is known to be the highest mountain peak in the south of the Himalayas.. about 2695 meters! The name 'Anaimudi', refers to 'the Elephant's head'. Sadly, i could not make time to sketch this.

Above, is a quick sketch of the 'Eravikulam hut', where we stayed. Below, just a quick landscape sketch of the mountains, valleys, sholas and the swifts i saw flying about the place! Next to these sketches are the birds i got to see during my stay!

The bird highlights for me on this trip were the Nilgiri Wood Pigeon, Pacific swallow, White-bellied Shortwing, Nilgiri Pipit, Indian Schimitar Babbler, Black eagle and with all probability a Fork-tailed Swift! To add to this... allll these birds,except for the Black eagle, were my lifers (seeing them for the first time!)

I have come back now,but have left many things undone. I still need to see those lush green grasslands in the monsoons,need to hike up to the top of Anaimudi, explore more of the sholas and see more of its wildlife. One cannot ask for a better landscape to learn how to sketch and paint. I so wish i get to go back!

Calotes T-shirt

Well.. here's the T-shirt i painted for my brother's birthday just last month. A Calotes lizard !

This is the second T-shirt painting i have done. Did the first one for a dear friend of mine, about more than a year back. But, I dont even have a proper picture of the first one and now its all faded off i heard :( . Last time, i had used acrylic paints to do it. But this time did it with Fabric colours, so hopefully it should stay.

Spider Lily

Hymencallis speciosa

One of the most prettiest flowers in my garden. Wish it could bloom all year round. Did this painting in September, i guess.
Have u ever seen this flower when it -just- opens?? Gosh! its amazing ! Its like a loose bud.. the tips are all attached and *suddenly* it breaks free and those spider-like long petals spread out. The 6 long greenish stamens with yellowish-orange pollen heads, stand upright, making it look prettier !

Next time u see a Spider Lily in a loose bud.... wait and watch it release itself. You just cannot hold back your smile!

.... a watery sunbird wash!

For sometime now, the sunbirds have been on my mind. Dipped my brush to do some small paintings of these tiny jewels. Hoping to capture them at their best, very soon. Over a hundred species of sunbirds have been recorded around the world, out of which India has just about 12 species.

These are the Purple sunbirds. One, amongst the 4 known species recorded in South India. Their long slender down curved bills are well adept to taking nectar from flowers, thus putting them in an exclusive nectar-feeding family called the 'Nectariniidae' .

True to their name, the males have a brilliant glittering iridescent plumage, which is best seen when the sunlight falls on the birds.

Out of the Sketchbook - 2

Some doodles in my sketchbook, out in the field...

Out of the Sketchbook!

Back from my most recent trip to Coorg! I stayed at honeyvalley and also hiked up Tadiandamol, which had been on my wish-list for 4 years now, from when i started with the idiscoveri programmes! This has been the only exciting adventure -all by myself- so far! Suresh and Susheela Chengappa have always been lovely hosts with their most generous smiles and delicious home-cooked food.

Met some other wonderful backpackers there and every now and then, had some time to get my sketch book out. Of everything that i saw, I guess i formed a more special bond with the moths at honeyvalley! They loved to be sketched and i loved to sketch them too. They sat ever so patiently until i sketched them.. and heh! they kept sitting even after that!!
The trek up Tadiandamol was just amazing, but tiring as hell! From honeyvalley to the peak its about 9 kms and the last part of it is steep and uphill all the way. It was so misty and cloudy when i reached the top and i couldnt see more than 30-40ft from where i stood. to make it more memorable, it showered just so much to refresh me from the hike to the top. Between the showers, i just made a quick sketch of the Ground-Orchid on top, which left me smiling as i had something to take back from there, other than some pictures! As i was heading back, decided to take the other path which is longer but would pass through the Nalkunad palace...It was 14 kms from the peak to honeyvalley! Most of the path in the beginning was downhill or either flatish.. but the last 4 kms were kind of uphill and gosh it seemed to take forever! My legs had almost started giving up on me, i trotted along so slowly at my own pace and finally reached honeyvalley at 6:30pm. Exhausted like never, hungry and wanting to hit the bed as soon as i could.................but if only the Wolf Snake in my room let me! :)

The 7 Chakra's...

The 7 chakra's in the human body!

Well...unlike the wildlife & nature paintings i have posted on this blog earlier, every once in a while i need to accept other commission works too, to keep myself going ! These are the most recent set of paintings that i have worked on. I was not aware about these chakra's at all, until i started painting them. Though its nowhere close to wildlife, i really enjoyed working on this set mainly coz of their design and the colours! I learnt a little more about them as i painted.. i believe, the Chakra system orginated more than 4,000 years ago and are referred to in the ancient litratures of Vedas, Upanishads and in the Yoga sutra's of Patanjali. Each of these 7 main Chakra's in the body have been symbolised by the paintings and their respective sanskrit alphabets, to add to their meaning.
Here are the names of the 7 Chakra's in thier respective order...
1) Muladhara, symbolised by a lotus with four petals.
2) Swadhisthana, symbolised by a lotus with six petals.
3) Manipura, symbolised by a lotus with ten petals.
4) Anahata, lotus with twelve petals.
5) Vishuddha, lotus with sixteen petals.
6) Ajna, in the form of an eye, held as a chakra of time, awareness and light. On the two corners you see the 'sun' and the 'moon'.
7) Saharara, is generally considered to be the chakra of consciousness with thousands of petals.

Fibreglass mural - finally complete !

4'X6' fibreglass mural
(click on the image to see a bigger version)

This started of as a terracotta mural 2 yrs back.......
completed as a fibreglass mural..... just yesterday!

Right after the 5 academic years in college, a bunch of us... Swetha, Manju and i started a mural for our freind SL... for his new house ! What we had done in terracotta looked great.. its quite time consuming and it takes days and days to dry. As we had started doing it right in the monsoon season.. it took about 2 months to dry. Finally gave it for baking and about 5 peices of the Terracotta mural maze had to break down while firing. This was our first terracotta mural and we amatuers must have let some air-bubbles seap in, which gave way to the cracks. Though we were aware of the possibility of breaking while firing.. we wanted to take our big chance and try it out. This was a great learning for all of us. By the time this dried and got fired, each one of us had moved into doing different things in our lives and we could not get back to finishing the mural. All thanks to our freind SL who waited patiently. I guess he had almost lost hope that we would ever complete his mural.... but we suddenly came back to the enthu spirit to finally complete it. This time it was Swetha, Nandini and i. Our dear freind Manju is busy getting prepared to step into a wedlock. We missed her as much as she missed working on this mural together. This time, we didnt want to take a chance with terracotta as it will shrink, take time to dry (its the monsoon season again) and still there is a big chance while firing it. So we decided to try our hands on doing it in Fiber. We need to specially thank Mr.Basu who guided us 2 yrs back when we were trying our hands with clay. Now a special thanks to Mr.Chalapathy (Swetha's dad who is a well renouned sculptor of Bangalore) and Rangaswamy who guided and helped us through the fibre process ! 10 days of work-work-work and today.. its finally complete!

I will soon put up the whole sequence and step-by-step procedure of the 'making' of this mural !
Its been a great learning and a great experience !! :)

The Pondy ponderer ..

Dono why i chose to paint the Pond Heron a couple of days back. But i just left like doing some quick water colour paintings. I had been to Lalbagh last week and sat there sketching all the birds i saw, and i guess the -Pondy ponderer- stuck to my mind! Came home, used some photographs for reference and brushed around a little bit!

The Indian Pond Heron (Ardeola grayii) is found throughout the Indain Sub-continent. One of our most common wading birds in shallow waters and marshy wetland habitats. The Paddy fields are amongst their most preferred habitats too, and so they are well known as 'Paddy Birds'. In flight, the underwings of this bird is striking white, when compared to the bird at rest, which is drab brown and streaky with not much white showing at all. Makes a great camouflage in a marshy area.

Waits so still and patiently to strike at its meal.
Well here's the pondy ponderer pondering patiently... as always!

"JaydimaNnina Kale"

I LOVE working with JedimaNnu !!! Well.. JaydimaNnu in Kannada just refers to Clay ! Once the clay items are baked /fired in the kiln, they are called TERRA-COTTA ! so... Here are a few of my Terra-cotta works i did a few years back. Its so much fun getting your hands all messy with a brown sticky stuff all over your hands! :)


My Cute lil' Terracotta Elephant all set to go for the Dassera prosession!!


Enjoyed working on this box so much... Etching each of those desings when the clay was Leather-hard and then filling up everything with a white paste called 'Engo'. I love it !


Am so crazy about diya's. I love seeing a LOT of diya's lit together. Made four lil' diya's and put them all together like this! It looks very pretty when lit!!


Another lil' Diya with the form of the parrot. I love birds as most of you already know looking at my paintings. As soon as i saw this piece.. i wanted to make it for myself too !! :)

*GuLakMale*

Well... *GuLakMale* happens to be a small village near Kagglipura, on the road connecting Kanakpura and Bannerghatta Road. A lot of fields and floriculture around the place...a high raised bund and as we climbed up on it, a big lake was right in front of us!!

Yup! Nanditha, Shilpa, Joyshree, Geetha and myself set out birding today. We had absolutely no clue that we were going to such a Beautiful place. The cloudy weather made it even better!! There were birds everywhere!!! Starting the day with Indian Robins, Pied Bushchats, Cormorants, all the three kinds of common Bulbuls - Red whiskered, Red vented and the White browed Bulbul, and ,Rose-ringed Parakeets. The day was more promising with the sightings of the Small blue Kingfisher, plenty of Black headed Munias, Ioras, White eyes, a Green billed Malkoha,White breasted Waterhen and not to forget the juvenile Short toed Snake Eagle!!!! Ofcourse, the Jungle Myna's, Ashy Prinias, Tailor birds, sunbirds,Doves, White browed Wagtails, a Lapwing, Spot billed Ducks, Grebes, Swallows,Small Green Bee-eaters, Kites, Egrets and Crows added to the day! Saw about 3-4 sunbirds in Eclipse plumage too!!!

A good number of butterflies too... Baronet, Nigger, Common Bushbrown, Crimson Rose, Tawny Coaster, Common Indian Crow, Emigrants, Grass yellows and Grass Jewels all around!! A pleasant and wonderful day all together! Waiting to see what more this place has in store! Hoping to visit soon! :)

More painted birds.....

Malabar Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros coronatus)

Well... posting just a few more of my bird paintings done a few years back... These are mainly watercolour paintings.

Cattle Egret ( Bubulcus ibis)

Indian Pitta ( Pitta brachyura)

Mural at the Montessori !

Well....My friend Shilpa and i, worked on this mural at a montessori "Learning Tree" in Jayanagar. The garage has been converted into a play area with a sand-pit, a small wooden house and a slide for the kids. And ofcourse the painting on either sides. The owner of the montessori was very much willing to make it educative for the kids and was happy to include bugs, butterflies, birds, plants and other creatures in the mural! She wanted it realistic and that's exactly what we had in mind too! By the end of 20-25 days.... this is what we gave her!!

Birds abstract !

One of my friend gifted me a really nice book on wildlife paintings- "Tigers-Artists for nature in India" by Nicholas Hammond! I love the book and at the same time was so inspired that i tried out something myself.... using a kinda similar style!

I guess i got to get rid of my laziness these days.. and try out some more !!

KAYAKING over the weekend !!

I had been wanting to do some kayaking sometime... and especially after KK (Kiran) got a kayak from the US, i had even more wanting to do it. Out of the blue, friday night KK asked me if i would like to do some kayaking saturday morning... how could i deny! :) We reached manchanbele dam by 7:30am... inflated the kayak and set out !! The weather was amazing... breezy, cloudy and *Grreeennn* ALL around! This was my first time Kayaking and we went on and on and on.... I guess i was sooo excited, i never got tired of rowing at all! It was so peaceful out there... cormorants, Grey herons, kingfishers, bulbuls, sunbirds, peafowls and raptors above! A wonderful way to spend your weekend, no doubt! We were back where we started around 12. Deflated the kayak and headed back home...right in time for lunch!