Experimenting with New Subjects and Methods!

After some works in the September, I thought I would experiment new subjects and methods in October. Here are some fresh works which I did recently, trying with new subjects.

Watercolor painting of an elephant on A3 sized hand made paper. 

Mt. Ama Dablam in Black and White made in A3 sized French Cartridge!

Swayambhu in A4 sized hand made paper!

Conceptual Art of Sport City!

Hope to share more paintings in the coming days! :)

September Paintings

September has been a productive month for me. I had no any obligatory commitments and was free to do whatever I wished. I enrolled myself on four online courses on www.coursera.org and www.edx.org of which I completed one course that lasted 4 weeks. Another course is in the verge of completion while some courses have just commenced. Apart from that I did paintings. Here are some of the paintings from this month.

Machhapuchhre Scenery with Rhododendrons!

This painting was made on A3 sized hand made paper.

Sunset Scene

This painting portraying a glimpse of dusk and all the paintings below were made on A4 sized handmade paper.

Monastery

Dudhpokhari Scenery

Rhino Tal - Scenery

With all these paintings, the online courses and other stuffs, this month was quite a busy month!

Landscapes of Rural Nepal

I share my paintings in my Facebook page as soon as I do them, however posting them in blog is somewhat different. I want to pack similar paintings into a single post. So, sometimes I wait until I create a few similar paintings and at other times I update the paintings in the already published post.

In this post, I would like to update one of my most recent paintings and I want to append it to the top!

Rural Nepal Landscape

This painting is made on A3 sized French Cartridge using a photo reference. I invented a new way to scan it by using my regular A4 sized scanner: scanning the upper half and the lower half separately and then combining the two using the Photoshop. Because of imaging through scanner the picture has come out clear and lively.

The following two paintings are both A4 sized paintings made in handmade paper.

Rural Landscape

This painting was referenced from a photograph but the elements have been altered hoping to make it more artistic although, I might not have become that successful in this matter.

View of Sarangkot

This one is a scene of Sarangkot which I referenced from photograph.

Rural Landscape

This painting is made on A3 sized French Cartridge. Because of its larger size, it didn't fit on the scanner and I had to take a photograph of the painting so, it is not very clear. This painting is already sold.

Paddy Plantation Paintings!

In Nepal, this is Asar, the month of paddy plantation. 15th of Asar is celebrated as "Ropain Diwas" or "Paddy Plantation Day". As soon as the monsoon begins, farmers start planting paddy in Nepal. Usually, the month of Asar and Shrawan (Mid-June to Mid-August) is the ideal time for re-planting paddy.

It, thus, becomes relevant to paint on these subjects at this time of year. So, here I have two watercolor paintings on the same theme.

Women Planting Paddy in Fields

 In Nepal, the cultivation of rice is still traditional and relies on manual labor to plant the paddy. These artworks depict the same scenario of the Nepalese agriculture. I got the painting concept and reference from a calendar photograph.

Women Planting Paddy in Rice Fields

Both paintings are made on Handmade watercolor paper. The former is full A4 sized while the latter is cropped in its length. I've shared these paintings in my Facebook Page, my own Timeline and an Art Group "Nepalese in Art" and they have got good feedback, which has made me highly motivated to paint.

Hope you will also like these two artworks of mine. Would love to hear from you in the comments.

Machhapuchhre (Fishtail) and Rhododendron

Again after a gap of quite a while, I have made a new painting of Mount Machhapuchhre (Fishtail) with Rhododendron in the foreground. I have been busy in university application process for my master's education and this Saturday, I thought I should make one painting and I did it.

I feel happy with the outcome as I have applied a few techniques learnt in the art class (where my attendance rate was just about 50%) and the painting has come out pretty good.

Rhododendron in the foreground and Fishtail in the background!

Here is another painting of Rhododendrons. I was a bit anxious and impatient while painting the foliage of the rhododendron. However, I am still happy with whatever I manage to achieve.

Rhododendrons

These new paintings have revived my inspiration and the desire to paint. Hope to paint more and share more in the coming days.

My First Exhibition - Painting for Charity!

In my previous post, I explained about how I decided to organize painting exhibition. Now, I am describing my experience in brief.

I would consider it fairly successful, as I was able to sell two paintings worth Rs.2000 (two thousand) each. My main aim was charity (100% of the profit). So, my cost of the paintings was mainly for framing which was around Rs.500 for each painting, and the cost of art materials like paint, brushes, cartridge paper, etc was approximately apportioned at Rs. 200 per painting. So, the total cost per painting is Rs. 700.

This follows that, profit was Rs. 2600 (two thousand six hundred) out of which, 1300 goes to Leo Club of Bharatpur and remaining 1300 goes to Help Nepal Network!

I have sold three other paintings  (unframed) previously to Peter Christian Lagendorf, founder of suknepal.org, worth Rs. 5500, all of which will go to Help Nepal Network as the cost of framing is removed. So, total fund for Help Nepal Network is NRs, 6800. However, I'm yet to realize all the fund in cash! Hope I will realize that soon.

I only remembered to shoot the photos of the exhibition at the evening. Here are a few shots taken by me.

A glimpse of exhibition - 1

A glimpse of exhibition - 2

A glimpse of exhibition - 3

I will update other photos if available. The good aspect of the exhibition was that it was my first exposure, was coordinated fairly easily, and that no one was pressured to buy a painting. The bad aspect was that it was a bit cornered, and didn't attract people's immediate attention as it was a sub program.

Anyway, it was a good experience for me. I invented a beautiful way to create price tags. The price was stated on one side, and labelled as "SOLD" on another side. So, whenever a painting sells, it's tag would be switched to another side. That was really cool.

A small co-ordination problem was experienced, and lack of complete information about the another program, created confusion while setting the flex banner and planning the hanging of the paintings. However, the exhibition was conducted for very short period of time and therefore, I consider it successful in overall.

Update: (June 14, 2015)

I had thought I would post a separate article to discuss about the charity, but I was busy and couldn't find time to do so for a long time. So, I thought I would append the information here itself.

I handed over Rs. 1300 to the Leo Club of Bharatpur's ruling president, Mr. Santosh Majakoti, on a board meeting of the club on the evening of March 20.

Here are two snapshots of the handover (Thanks to Leo Anup Bhujel dai for the snaps) :

Similarly, I also donated 3 cartoon of noodles worth Rs. 1400 to the Leo Clubs' "Earthquake Relief Material Collection" program, on the aftermath of the April 25 devastating earthquake. Previously, I was planning to donate that money to Help Nepal Network.

Organizing a Painting Exhibition

I have finally decided to coordinate an Art Exhibition to showcase my paintings and conduct the charity which I promised about four months ago. I painted rigorously for about two months after which I had problems with my eyes - which was diagnosed about a month later as exophoria (aka Convergence Insufficiency) - a kind of heterophoria. I then stopped painting and joined Leo Club of Bharatpur, in order to participate in social service, develop leadership and so on.

After three months, I am coordinating a first program, in which I will be exhibiting my own paintings. The theme of the exhibition is "Painting for Charity".

I am planning this exhibition alongside another program, the 13th anniversary celebration of Leo Club of Bharatpur, and Lions Leo Family Meet. Therefore, I will be utilizing the same venue which will have dual benefits, lower cost and plenty of visitors.

Art Exhibition Flex Banner

Today, I made this flex banner. The paintings have already been framed about a month ago. The venue, date, and audience were automatically managed. I have already decided on how to split the profit (after covering the cost of art materials and framing, which I have decided at approximately NRs. 700 for each painting) from the painting. Half of the profit amount will go to Leo Club and remaining half will go to Help Nepal Network. Therefore, I am almost ready to go.

However, I have not decided on the prices yet which will be done in consultations with fellow Leo Club Members tomorrow. I am thinking to charge around NRs. 2000 for each paintings, most of which are of A3 size. However, this is not final. I will post updates about how the program goes tomorrow.

Paintings of Nature!

This One-horned Rhino is my latest watercolor painting. I did this painting after about a gap of about three months due to problems with my eyes.

One-horned Rhinoceros

All the paintings below are more than three months old and some are attempted twice in order to improve upon the first attempt.

Rhino Taal Painting

This is the painting of "Rhino Taal" or Rhino Lake of Chitwan National Park. This is a second attempt of the Rhino Taal painting made on the hand-made paper.

Hilly Village Scenery

This painting is also the second attempt of the painting I have made already. It represents a Hilly Village of Nepal and is made by referencing an oil painting.

Narayani Bridge @ Sunset

This is a Narayani bridge, also made on hand-made paper. It is small in size than the rest of the paintings.

Seascape at Dusk

This is also the second attempt of the "Seascape" painting which is made on French Cartridge.

Rural House Scenery

This is a Village Scenary made on one of the best kinds of handmade paper. It is my first attempt on the hand-made paper.

Hilly Village Landscape

Another hilly village scenery, this painting is made on French Cartridge of A3 size.

All of the above paintings except that of Narayani bridge are made on A3 size. All, except the Rhino, are framed already and ready for sale.

In the last three months, I worked on framing and have been successful to frame the twelve recent paintings in total. I am further planning to frame two of my old paintings and the latest painting of the Rhino.

Recently, I am looking for artist friends in order to improve, collaborate for exhibition and thus contribute something for the society. I have vowed to collect around Rupees ten thousand for Help Nepal Network, and the rest of the money will be used for covering painting expenses and learning and further charity and social works.

I have also joined Leo Club of Bharatpur about three months ago in order to serve society and make a difference in the society.