Morning Drive from Shimla to Manali - Chapter 2

I continued work on the painting. This is what I have now with some detail shots.  Sorry about the reflections in the photos.  Its the oil from the wet paint.  Not sure if I am supposed to wait for days before taking a picture or if there is a better way?

"Shimla to Manali I" 18 x 24 Oil on Canvas

© 2014 Priya Bharat

Detail Shot of the turn of the river Beas around the bend

I haven't decided if the painting is finished.  I tend to stare critically at a painting for days before I can make up my mind.  Right away, I can tell the river shows movement, speed and direction the way I want.  Till I got to the river, the cobalt blue of the sky seemed to go well with the mountains, but with the river now looking more aquamarine, I am not so sure... Wish I didn't add that blue glaze at the end on impulse.

I am happy that the painting shows an honest capture of the main characteristics of the place.  In real life there are other elements such as sound to add to the atmosphere of a place.  When looking down at the rushing river from the side of the road, one feels inspired, yet lighter and humbled by those lofty mountains.  If you stare at the painting and close your eyes, can you hear the river rushing down between those endless, majestic mountains?  Its the Himalayas!

Its hard for me to let go of the details.  But now that I have them down, maybe I will feel liberated to make a more abstract version of the same location one day with a bit of improvisation to bring in a sense of excitement and drama with those clouds and water.  A future project.

After each painting I learn more but I also realize there is a lot more for me to learn :-)

Morning Drive from Shimla to Manali - Chapter 1

Last Summer we went on a family vacation to the beautiful state of Himachal Pradesh in North India which sits on the laps of the Himalayas.  The amazing drive from Shimla to Manali left me with impressions of winding, climbing roadways that curve around mountain to mountain, with the Beas river keeping us company for the entire drive.  The river flowed down with such great speed as our car sped up the hills towards Manali, making me want to drive up all the way from where it originated. The river seemed to crash over or wind around the rocks and boulders in its path to determinedly make its way down.  There was green everywhere you can see with deodar trees, apple and plum orchards.  It was such a calming sensation to my senses after the hustle and noise in the concrete jungle we live daily.

I hoped to capture some of those memories in this painting.  The Beas river had a color that was a muddy mix of white and very pale aquamarine due to the sediments it brought down with it.  The mountains were just all green, but depending on the time of the day and the light, the mountains went from a purple-gray to bright green.

I read about complementary color underpainting.  Some of the choices for underpainting were intuitive to me and I was instinctively applying those in my paintings - such as burnt sienna or deep reds and purples under greens to indicate shadows within leaves.  But for the most part I have been using the same colors for the under paint as the top layers, or used monochromatic layers just to capture the values (sort of like shading in pencil drawing). In theory I could see how an orange underpaint could make a blue sky glow.  So I was excited to give it a try in this painting.

I felt nervous to apply very strong layers of underpaint in completely opposite colors.  I usually use acrylic underpaint and then paint with oils over to avoid long drying time. So for the same reason I was worried about the under colors becoming too "permanent" when I paint over.  The painting looked like a photo negative!

It was really difficult to make so many decisions during underpainting - finding complementary colors to the final color, then matching the tint of final color to the complementary color.  It was hard to keep straight 2 sets of color schemes when starting out from a blank canvas.  One set of final colors and another set of their complements.  My brain was spinning around the color wheel :-)  How does one make so many decisions in the beginning?  Beyond an initial broad plan, I am used to making decisions along the way.  Characteristically, I got impatient with the number of confusing decisions so I rebelled and stopped thinking :-)

I kept the underpainting light as a compromise since I was convinced I was going about it all wrong.  In retrospect, I probably needn't have worried so much since I ended up with this below.  The orange sky and yellow mountains went away to my relief and I got into my comfort zone.  Now I can feel more and think less, or at least do both simultaneously!