Kauai Hen-Day 6

© Ellen Blonder

Painting feathers all day, newly inspired by the attention to detail in Indian miniatures. This doesn't come close.

Kauai Hen-Day 5

© Ellen Blonder

 I just added detail to the feathers today, mostly painted with my synthetic brushes. I did try out my new paintbrush, acquired on my India trip, on the finest details. The artists make their own paintbrushes from squirrels that they feed a special diet. All the hairs on the brush curve in the same direction, and a single hair is the tiniest bit longer than the others, perfect for their exquisite miniature paintings. 

The artist who sold me the brush (for about $2) told me with one dip of the brush in paint, they can work for half an hour before needing to dip their brush again. For their miniatures, pigments are ground from stones and minerals and mixed with gum arabic. I can't do that with acrylic--the paint would dry up in the hairs--but it does create an extraordinarily fine line.

Kauai Hen-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

Today was about the plumeria flowers and making the foliage colors more opaque before I start adding details.

Kauai Hen-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Rather than painting groundcover flowers, I thought I'd sneak in some fallen plumerias. Just blocked in basic colors today.

Kauai Hen-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Starting to underpaint, have to figure out the foliage and flowers I'd like to put around the hen, but first I had to get her beady eye.

Kauai Hen-Day 1

 

© Ellen Blonder

Kauai roosters just beg to be painted, but hens sit back and wait for you to notice. Here's the sketch of a patient hen on an 8 x 10-inch board. 

Late Christmas

© Ellen Blonder

It's actually after New Year's Day, and a pat resolution is to tidy up my desktops, both real and virtual. I never know what I'll find. Today, I discovered a computer file I forgot about, with some proposed repeat patterns that were never produced.

Something Red and Green

 

© Ellen Blonder

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE. Here's something red and green from India--doors in Jaipur, more specifically.

India-Ganesha Large and Small

© Ellen Blonder

Ganesha is everywhere and in every size, from the gigantic painting on a cement wall to a tiny icon over a doorway in Varanasi.

India-Textures

© Ellen Blonder

Even when ornament is weathered or absent, textures and patterns are around every corner in Varanasi.

India-Art Everywhere

© Ellen Blonder

Art abounds in India. In Varanasi, that includes the painted doorway along a random alley, and the extraordinary painting around the door to our bathroom at the Ganges View Hotel.

India-Serenity Anywhere

© Ellen Blonder

I haven't posted lately because I was in India for the first time. Here are a couple of photographs I took in Varanasi. The first is of a boat on the Ganges, the second is of a woman texting from her narrow perch on a bicycle rickshaw. She possesses the serenity of the people on the boat, even though she's bouncing through a sea of wild, heavy traffic.

Persimmon Revisited-Final

 © Ellen Blonder

Finished. The actual fruit is still hanging on the branch, but by today many of the leaves have fallen.

Persimmon Revisited-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Slowly adding color to the leaves over this holiday weekend.

Persimmon Revisited-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Just had time to work on the persimmon fruit today. Since the windstorm a couple of days ago tore off many of the leaves, so I'm glad I took reference photos.

Persimmon Revisited-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I'm revisiting the persimmon in a second watercolor. This will show leaves in stages of turning rich yellows, oranges and reds, different from my painting from a couple of weeks ago when the leaves were all still green. Many of the actual leaves blew off the tree in today's heavy windstorm, scattering brilliant color all over the garden.