Plein air at Nandi hills

Plein air studies in watercolor, 5 x 7 inches

Last Sunday, I had gone to Nandi hills for plein air painting with a group called Pencil jammers of which I’ve become a member now. We were 21 artists in total which also included one of my close friends, Prabal Mallick. Initially I was very excited and quite sure about painting some nice sketch studies of the place. After a while, I begin to feel totally the opposite! Painting on spot is very different from painting in your studio. First, it was very windy and chilly. Second, the light just kept changing, transforming the entire scene from cool to warm and vice versa. I finished 3 sketches and needless to say, was not very happy with them. Felt others did better!

After coming back, I just evaluated the sketches and felt the values needed to be adjusted a bit which I did and voila!...the paintings begin to look a lot better!

I also painted 2 different versions of a scene back in my studio from a reference photo that I took while we were coming down from the hills. As soon as I finished the vertical one, I was tempted to try out a landscape version of the same scene.

'On the way to Nandi hills - version 1'

Watercolor, 14 x 10 inches

'On the way to Nandi hills - version 2'

Watercolor, 14 x 10 inches

Hope you like both and the sketches as well.

Have a great week ahead! :)