My Paintings

The Scented Landscape – An Abstract Oil Painting

July 16, 2010 Filed Under: My Paintings By Ishrath Humairah 11 Comments

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The Scented Landscape – Oil on Canvas

There is no abstract art.
You must always start with something.
Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)

Thats what Picasso said eons ago. I tried him.

I tried removing all the traces of reality in my landscape… but how can you not see nature in this. The azure skies, green flora and deep earth… all resplendent and suggestive that no matter how much you erase… nature is everywhere. Even in the unseen.

This painting is far distant from what I had in mind when I started. Yes, it was supposed to be a landscape and it still is – starting with the skies and goes deep within earth.

Hours went by, but it didn’t feel right. I repeatedly moved the colors around on the canvas till I could understand the need. Indeed, I had to remove all the traces of reality – of all that I could see and all that I wanted to do.

Layer upon layer, the colors kept merging with one another to reach this stage, what I call as pure peace. The End.

Green being my favorite color, I can never have enough of it. My last two paintings, deep forest and the refuge I seek, have these shades of green to its best. Some shades of green are so much in your system that you dont feel done unless you have used them.

I have used five shades of green in this painting. They merge so beautifully that it looks like one color in all its glory. Every time I squeezed a bit of new green color on palette, I wondered what I was upto or rather what the painting was upto. I had no idea it would turn out this sublime, misty and mysterious. The photograph of this abstract art does not convey enough.

I am loving every inch of it, it as it dries. And the one thing I have learnt with this scented landscape is that you can never go wrong with green – the color of life.

The Refuge I Seek – An Abstract Landscape Painting in Oil Media

July 9, 2010 Filed Under: My Paintings By Ishrath Humairah 15 Comments

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The Refuge I Seek – Abstract Impressionist Landscape Painting – Oil on Canvas

Here is another painting that is growing on me. And teaching me more than I can ever comprehend. There is handiwork of the One above – in everything we see.

I now find reasons to go past by this painting which is now hung to dry. It will take a long for sure as it is laden with thick textures and thick colors

I started with turquoise, copper and Indian red as base colors. I knew it would be a landscape for the colors were speaking for themselves, conveying sky, earth and trees. As the new layers got added, a beautiful abstract landscape was formed. I cant even remember the number of days it took to reach here.

There was a danger of doing more work on this and spoil it. Thankfully, I stopped. This time I kept going back and looking at it as a whole and decided to stop. It seemed very light, beautiful and airy earlier with less darker tones. But with a little more brushwork and darkness around, it feels better.

Call it abstract, impressionist or anything, its beyond my care. I was and am stunned by the simplicity of this painting. It is growing on me at the moment. If there is a calling, this is it.

If there is a refuge for my soul, this is it.

Deep Forest – An Abstract Oil Painting in Terre Verte

June 29, 2010 Filed Under: My Paintings By Ishrath Humairah 8 Comments

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Deep Forest – Oil on Canvas – Heavy Texture

Deep Forest uses a single color and spreads over in different shades and hues. It is actually a painting over a painting because I salvaged an existing canvas that did not have much on it. Thanks to liberal amount of gesso and paper shreds, a lovely texture was created. And that lovely canvas texture in pure white formed images of woods, branches, trees and more. It itself gave rise to an old deep forest.

I love textures in paintings – with lots of paint. But for deep forest, the textures were made with shreds of tissue paper, little water and gesso. I had to leave it to dry for 2 days and did another layer of gesso to seal it all in. All I had was a milk white canvas with beautiful textures that looked like a painting. Needless to say, it needed a bit of green. Verte green was not my first color of choice. I chose it to make the undertones. When I started with this shade of green, I could not stop.

Terre Verte is surprisingly a beautiful color (dirty yet leafy). A blob on the palette deceives its capabilities. But as you go about using it over white, it looks spectacular. I see myself using more of it in future. And not to mention that the above photo is not an exact reproduction of verte green color due to the camera/ monitor technicalities.

I’d say, go get that shade for yourself and start playing. You wont be disappointed.

Art for the Sake of Art

June 1, 2010 Filed Under: My Paintings By Ishrath Humairah 11 Comments

Have you ever considered a painting as a backdrop for showcasing gemstones? Can paintings play a role in window dressing for jewelry display? I tried.

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Lapiz Lazuli on Gemstone Inspired Abstract Art

Here is one of my little squares that has a geologic abstract art inspiredd by Lapiz Lazuli gemstone. The stone by itself is spectacular in detail and needs no fuss around it to stand out. Gorgeous blue with gold streaks, as designed by nature, never cease to amaze.

This is but another attempt to try tone over tone. Surprise! Surprise! It works. The broad palette knife strokes complement the intense detailing on the gemstone.

Here, one art form (of designing jewellery) complements the other. This painting (along with other gemstone inspiredd artworks) is currently being used as a backdrop for jewelry display in a lifestyle boutique in Chennai.

Perseverance – The Law of Nature

May 26, 2010 Filed Under: My Paintings By Ishrath Humairah 8 Comments

“Never give up. Never, never give up!
We shall go on to the end.”
Winston Churchill

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Perseverence – The Law of Nature

Perseverence
Acrylic on Canvas
18 x 24
Varnished Finish

Perseverence – steady persistence in adhering to a belief, resilience, and patience is what we see in nature.

“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverence.”
H. Jackson Brown

This painting happened in my mind when I was gazing at Free Within – with its deep earth and the sky above. I could see a tree there – wanting to come out of the crevices. The tree in my thought was high, mighty, big and bold. Its strong branches stood tall against the deep forest greens. Its roots were strong within.

So, I set out to finish it – as I saw it. Thick modelling paste gave me the freedom to deepen the roots on canvas. Knife slided deep into earth in gay abandon. It always feels good when ones visions get translated on canvas – even if they are not true representation.

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Modelling Paste on Canvas for added Depth

But midst the root formation, the joy stopped. Something did not feel right. The tree refused to be born on the canvas. Chopped and uprooted trees is what I saw. That is the reality we live in. At that moment, all I could see was a tree stump. The stump remained on the canvas. Dead. Silent.

“Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky.
We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness”
Kahlil Gibran

I let the paste to dry. Nothing felt right. In vain, I looked up to the tree for answers. I could never give up on it or abandon it.

The mighty tree did not give up either. Its destiny was not to remain to rot. It refused to die.

It gave birth to new saplings from within. What I thought of painting as dead was living within. The little plants made themselves out of the earth’s crevices.

My earlier painting, Free Within, now seems complete.