Happy New Year!

"Market Street, Jodhpur"

Watercolor on Fabriano paper 300 gsm

14 x 21 inches

Year 2011 had been a good one for me. And I wish that 2012 would be better, not just for me but also for all of you...HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 :)

Featured on Chris Beck's blog

I'm so happy and honored that my wonderful friend and a very talented watercolorist, Chris Beck from USA has featured me on her blog! Thanks a million dear Chris! I really appreciate it... :)

See my feature on her blog here.

Featured in PRATIQUE DES ARTS

The response towards my Year end sale sale was good. I have sold 7 paintings so far. Hope to sell some more!

Meanwhile, I’m very excited and happy that my art has been featured in this month’s issue of PRATIQUE DES ARTS, a French art magazine. It’s a great feeling that my work is being recognized at international level and its an important achievement for me! J

Year End Sale!

Since I’m painting only in watercolors now, I have decided to offer all my other medium paintings (oil, acylic, pastels etc.) at half the price till this year end. Some of my earlier watercolor paintings, mostly small, are also included in the collection. I’m doing this for two reasons. One, I really want them to find good homes and second, I want to paint more! You may view the collection here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rameshjhawar/sets/72157628206975583/

Anyone interested may please let me know via email. My email id is

rameshjhawarart@gmail.com

Lemon seller, Udaipur

Watercolor on paper

14 x 21 inches

Tomato Seller

Watercolor on handmade paper

11 x 15 inches

Towards the Clock Tower, Udaipur

Watercolor on paper

21 x 14 inches

Bike in the sun

Watercolor on Paper

14 x 21 inches

(Photo reference courtesy of Adam Shane. Thank you Mr.Adam)

Another bicycle...

Used a Fabriano Rough paper for the feel of the textured wall...

Poster Wall

Watercolor & collage on paper

14 x 21 inches

(Photo reference courtesy of Mr.Manu Thomas. Thank you very much Mr.Manu)

Back to one of my favorite subjects - bicycles...

But for the lovely textured old wall with those old torn posters...typically Indian, this subject would not have been worth painting. I very much enjoyed painting this one as I could use a lot of watercolor techniques here - masking, wet in wet, wet on dry, dry brush, lifting, spattering etc. to create the texture on the wall. Finally I did some collage work, pasting those little posters and painting them over with little color and adding some shadows to make it look very realistic.

Hope you like it :)

Udaipur Vista

Watercolor on paper

14 x 21 inches

This view of Udaipur city is from the hill temple of godess Karni mata. The temple is approached by ropeway cable cars. The view of sunset from this point is the major attraction but by the time I reached the top, the sun had gone down but the sky still had that last glow of light...

Udaipur Sunset

Watercolor on Arches Paper

10 x 20 inches

I was gone to Mumbai for a week and hence couldn't upload any new work!

This scene from Udaipur is of the same place as my last post although in a different mood and color! Hope you like it. Comments welcome :)

SOLD

'Jag Mandir, Udaipur'

Watercolor on Arches paper

10 x 20 inches

Four of my paintings were sold today and I am feeling very happy about it. This one was very recent and one that hadn't been posted yet on my blog. Again I had problem capturing the exact hue of the blue with my camera in this one. The original painting looks much better! The other 3 paintings may be viewed here, here and here :)

Landscape # 2

Watercolor on paper

11 x 15 inches

Another painting of the same place...

Hasanur landscape

Watercolor on paper

11 x 15 inches

Hasanur is a beautiful forest area on the way to Mysore from my place. While driving to Mysore last year, I spotted this beautiful location in Hasanur. A cool breeze was blowing as the rain clouds began to gather and there was not a soul in sight. The distant blue mountains looked wonderful and the whole atmosphere was so quiet and peaceful that I just stopped there for a while. I painted this from one of the pictures that I shot there and I think I have been able to capture the feeling!

The importance of sketching

The importance of sketching has always been stressed by the masters. Some may feel that when painting from photographs, its not really necessary to do a preliminary sketch. I, for one, used to feel the same. It may be okay in case of simple subjects but when some subjects are really complicated, you need to simplify, or when you feel that some colors may be changed or pushed to create a mood, then a sketch or a little study really helps.

Anyway…doing a small sketch is always so much fun J

Narrow Lane, Ahmedabad

Watercolor on paper

21 x 14 inches

Udaipur Clock Tower

Watercolor

21 x 14 inches

A small thumbnail sketch of the painting

Hanuman Ghat, Udaipur

Watercolor, 14 x 21 inches

Pink Flowers

Watercolor on paper

11 x 15 inches

Usually flowers are not my preferred subject but seeing some floral paintings by some very good artists got me inspired to paint them and anyway I feel that an artist should try painting various subjects! I also looked for some good books on painting flowers and have short-listed a couple of them. Meanwhile, I tried to paint these pink flowers (don't know what they are called... :)) from my garden and really enjoyed it :)

Bougainvilleas #2

Watercolor on paper

12 x 18 inches

Two commissioned paintings

'Coca Cola Bike'

Watercolor, 14 x 21 in.

'Bicycle in the garden'

Watercolor, 11 x 15 in.

A client who very recently purchased 4 of my paintings was interested in some more paintings with bicycle themes and I could not be more happy... :)

Fortunately, I had some bicycle pictures from my trips that I wished to paint and now I had good reason to do so. Initially, I made some sketches and showed to my client out of which he selected two. I did larger and final versions of those and shipped them yesterday. Today I got a call from him that he liked both the paintings very much :)

Here are the sketches of these two paintings:

Another good news I wish to share is that my painting 'Chinese fishing nets' is also sold. It was bought by an art collector in Hyderabad a couple of days ago.

'Chinese Fishing Nets'

Have a great weekend!

Golden Fields

Watercolor on paper

14 x 21 inches

I have used Saunders Waterford (300 gsm) for this painting. When compared to others, this paper is a little yellowish...good for subjects that don't have much whites!

Locked Door

Watercolor on paper

10 x 14 inches

Photo reference provided by Daniel David Talegaonkar. Thanks very much Daniel :)

I just loved the texture on this old wooden door and needless to say, the brilliant light and shadows. Did this on a rough paper to get the texture.

Light and shadow

'Police chowki, Udaipur'

Watercolor on paper

11 x 15 in.

This is the 'Police chowki' (Police station) in Udaipur. The bright light on the upper right portion of the building and the shadows caught my attention. Some unwanted elements were eliminated while composing, thereby keeping the composition simple and highlighting just the play of light and shadow.

Lake Palace, Udaipur

Watercolor on handmade paper

11 x 15 inches

Yet another study...

P.S.

I'm not able to make changes in text alignment for quite sometime! Anyone getting the same problem?

Two Small Studies

City Palace, Udaipur (Study)

Watercolor, 5 x 10 inches

Jag mandir, Udaipur (study)

Watercolor, 5 x 10 inch

These are small studies (5 x 10") done from my reference photos of Udaipur. I wanted to see how these will look in the long format composition.

SOLD

" Bougainvilleas"

Watercolor on paper

11 x 15 in.

This is a very recent painting and now its sold to a gentleman in Delhi along with my 3 other paintings namely Vivid Wall, Sunset Riders and Wet Road. All are my favorites and its difficult for me to let go of them although I'm very happy that they have found a good home :)

Panch kuwa Darwaza, Ahmedabad

Watercolor on Paper

14 x 21 inches

Recently I was approached by one Mr.Karthik Ramkrishnan who is an art enthusiast and maintains a blog called scarletcanvas.com where he talks about the current trends in the art market and also features talented artists from all over the world. He liked my watercolors very much and wanted to do a feature on me as well. I'm much thankful to him. He has done a great job, writing about me so nicely. Do take a look

http://scarletcanvas.com/2011/05/30/featuring-ramesh-jhawar-a-highly-talented-and-upcoming-water-color-artist/

Clock Tower, Ahmedabad

Watercolor on paper

15 x 11 inches

This clock tower is located in the heart of the city of Ahmedabad. I visited the city last December.

One more news I wanted to share is that my painting titled "Morning Rays" is sold to a collector in Delhi. This was one of my personal favorites and I'm happy that it has found a good home :)

Here's the image of the painting...

Market, Surat

Watercolor on Paper

14 x 19 inches

I'm leaving tonight for Surat to attend my cousin's wedding. Will be back after 10 days. Surat is located in Gujarat state in central-western part of India and its a very old city. It even finds a mention in one of the short stories of Leo Tolstoy.

This scene and my last cityscape post titled 'Twilight hour' are from the same place. I took the reference photos when I visited Surat last year.

Life Drawing

These are the portraits of my nieces who came visiting us while on their summer vacation. They insisted that I draw their portraits and I too jumped at the opportunity! It was after a very long time, that I was drawing from life and I thought its a nice chance to test myself! It took me almost 45 minutes to complete each portrait which I think is a little long! However, with regular practice, this can be shortened. Well...I had an exciting time sketching these portraits. As for the girls, they tried hard not to doze off while posing... :))

P.S.

They loved their portraits :)

Twilight Hour

Watercolor on paper

11 x 15 inches

For reasons unknown, my camera couldn't capture the exact hue of ultramarine blue which is the major color in this painting. I got problems with the values as well! I have tried very hard in photoshop to match this image with the original hues of the painting. Believe me, the actual painting looks much better!

Gorai Beach

Watercolor on paper

14 x 21 inches

This is the last one of my beach scenes until I paint a new one :)

Again, masking fluid has been used here to preserve the whites.

Low Tide, Gorai Creek

Watercolor on paper

14 x 21 inches

Done from one of my reference pics of Mumbai city. This is a scene of Gorai creek in suburban Mumbai. One has to cross this creek in order to reach the Gorai beach. While walking towards the ferry, I noticed this wonderful scene of light shining on the sand and immediately captured it on my camera. The famous global vipassana pagoda is also seen in the distance. I have used masking fluid to save the whites just like my last painting of Gorai beach. The figures were added from imagination.

Golden Light, Gorai Beach

Watercolor on paper

14 x 21 inches

At The Traffic Light

Watercolor on Paper

14.5 x 20 inches

This is a scene from Pune city when I visited the place in December 2010 enroute to Mumbai. I shot the reference photo for this from an autorickshaw! I was at a traffic light and barely noticed my surroundings. Even my camera was tucked away in its bag. But as soon as we were ready to go, I noticed this beautiful light falling on the road and very hurriedly captured it on my camera :))

Sunset Riders

Watercolor on paper

20 x 15 in.

Featured

Fellow blogger Mr.Fernando Pena, a wonderful watercolor artist himself, was kind enough to feature me in "www.watercolorspainting.com", a blog featuring exclusive watercolorists from all over the world.

Please check it out here.

Thank you very much dear Fernando :)

Evening at Marina beach

Watercolor on paper

14 x 19 in.

Whenever in Chennai, I try to visit the Marina beach, a very popular tourist point. This is painted from one of my reference photos of the beach.

The Vivid Wall

Watercolor on paper

11 x 15 in.

My obsession with bicycles continues... :)