Journey of Upcoming to Done!

Sharing the entire series of the Portraits of the National Parks. I started it earlier this year and glad to have it finished before the end of the year 2016!

Plan to visit my studio to view it or visit my website or my online gallery. I am excited to have this opportunity to visit many of the national parks this year and paint them.

Thank you for visiting and have a happy new year!

Portraits of National Parks - # 10 "Denali National Park"

Denali National Park

(WIP)

Oil

2016

Denali National Park and Preserve encompasses 6 million acres of Alaska’s interior wilderness. Its centerpiece is 20,310-ft.-high Denali (aka Mount McKinley), North America’s tallest peak. With terrain of tundra, spruce forest and glaciers, the park is home to wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, moose, caribou and Dall sheep. Popular activities in summer include biking, backpacking, hiking and mountaineering. (Source: Wiki)

The painting has been completed from this picture was taken.

I am glad to share that, with this tenth NP portrait, the series is now complete!

Portraits of National Parks - # 9 "Acadia Park, Me"

 "Acadia"

12 x 16

Oil

More details here: My site or Acadia

This painting is signature landscape artwork I like to create. Bleaching sunlight as my guiding tool for the relative positioning of the planes and the choice of colors that are often dramatized as seen, not as are. 

Demo

The defining brush strokes are bold, loaded with paints, and very pleasing to art connoisseurs.Plan to view the artwork in person. You are invited!

Details

Portraits of National Parks - # 8 "Echo National Park, UT"

Echo Park is a remote river bottom, located in Dinosaur National Monument, surrounded by canyon walls on the Green River, close to the confluence with the Yampa River.

"Echo"

Oil

2016

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Ever Changing Nature

Nature has its own mysterious ways to offer drama, amusement, and sense of immediacy for us to enjoy and interpret in our own words and capacity. Most times, a gorgeous view humbles and delights in the manner nothing else can - leaving me speechless in awe and wonder.

In moments like this, not knowing what better can I do, I try to put my ever-ready hd-camera to some use. In this post, I would like to share the recent captures the fleeting scenes of clouds floating in the vast spread of blue skies. Here are some humble attempts to catch those moments.

I took this picture from the middle of the street. I had to make an pico-second emergency stop to appreciate the Van Gogh painting created in the sky.

In the week of Halloween, setting sun put up an immense show to attract the attention from the human festivities.

 Sky as seen after a rainy day, as it started to clear off. limitless screens of clouds set a grand stage.

Mission San Jose skyscape

When the clouds settle in the rearview.

 A cloud parade

An early morning sky in this Fall

Summer Sky

Clouds rest on the cross-street, while a horse jumps at the top

Clouds on the loose

A down-quilt of clouds enveloping the sky

A heart on horizon

Are you a nature lover? Do you like to watch sky? It would be nice to see what you have to share.

Portraits of National Parks - # 7 "Joshua Tree National Park, CA"

Joshua Tree National Park is a vast protected area in southern California. It’s characterized by rugged rock formations and stark desert landscapes. Named for the region’s twisted, bristled Joshua trees, the park straddles the cactus-dotted Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert, which is higher and cooler. Keys View looks out over the Coachella Valley. Hiking trails weave through the boulders of Hidden Valley. (Source: Wikipedia)

Oil

2016

About the Artwork

This painting is signature landscape artwork I create. I chose sunlight as my guiding tool for the relative positioning of the planes and the rocky background. The colors are often dramatized as seen, not as are with some minor omissions in the selected frame.

The defining brush strokes are bold, loaded with paints, and very pleasing to art connoisseurs. Not sure if you can tell that from the photo, but I invite you to take a closer look when you can!

Portraits of National Parks - # 6 Grand Canyon National Park, Wy

Grand Canyon National Park, in Arizona, is home to much of the Grand Canyon, with its layered bands of red rock revealing millions of years of geological history. Viewpoints include Mather Point, Yavapai Observation Station and architect Mary Colter’s Lookout Studio and her Desert View Watchtower. Lipan Point, with wide views of the canyon and Colorado River, is a popular, especially at sunrise and sunset.

Here is my humble attempt to paint something immensely grand.

This painting is impressionistic landscape artwork similar to other ones in the series. I choose orange yellow sunlight as my guiding tool for the relative positioning of the mountain planes and the shadowed areas caused by them. The colors are dramatized as seen, not as are.

This artwork and similar pieces are available in small, medium (up to 24″), and larger sizes.  The painting is unframed.

I am excited to share that it is also available in high quality canvas wrap with sides in black. For larger sizes’ prices and customized artwork, feel free to contact me at bhavna.misra@gmail.com.

The price range is based on the painted sq inch area. Being an independent artist, I am open for the reasonable offers. But if you like this one, I can assure you, you will love it manyfolds when you see it in person.

Portraits of National Parks - #5 Grand Teton National Park, Wy

Simple shapes and a perception of depth, these are the two key points I kept in mind while painting for this one. I laid out the basic drawing with the thinned paint in the hues of burnt sienna. Once satisfied with the layout, I painted the entire surface with only three values, both bookends and a middle tone. This helped me make the color decisions for the different areas and planes.

Rest is pretty much right here. Using thick layers of paint it was a delightful exercise to enjoy and recreate a nature-scape. Hope you'd enjoy it.

 Grand Teton

Oil

2016

Grand Teton National Park is in the state of Wyoming. It encompasses the Teton mountain range, the 4,000-meter Grand Teton peak, and the valley known as Jackson Hole.

It’s a popular destination in summer for mountaineering, hiking, backcountry camping and fishing, linked to nearby Yellowstone National Park by the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.

Portraits of National Parks - #4 Yosemite Falls, CA

                               

Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in Yosemite National Park, dropping a total of 2,425 feet from the top of the upper fall to the base of the lower fall. Located in the Sierra Nevada of California, it is a major attraction in the park, especially in late spring when the water flow is at its peak.
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in the central eastern portion of California. The park, which is managed by the National Park Service, covers an area of 747,956 acres and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

"Yosemite Falls"

Oil

2016

About 3.8 million people visit Yosemite each year: most spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, glaciers, and biological diversity. (Wikipedia)

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Portraits of National Parks - #3 Big Sur, CA

Big Sur is not a national park. Not even a national monument, it's a stretch of land of California’s central coast between Carmel and San Simeon. I still included it in this series for its beauty and the emotional attachment that I feel towards this lovely seascape.

Bordered to the east by the Santa Lucia Mountains and the west by the Pacific Ocean, it’s traversed by narrow, 2-lane State Route 1, known for winding turns, seaside cliffs and views of the often-misty coastline. The sparsely populated region has numerous state parks for hiking, camping and beachcombing. 

I visited this area some 17 years ago, for the first time. I found the view very peaceful and inviting. It is now that I finally got a chance to paint what I saw then.

"Big Sur" Seascape

Oil

2016

Here are the details of the oil painting. 

Blobs of fresh paint, delight to painter

Light against dark, perspective through colors

A view of the palette

The painting is sitting to dry. Once it does, I will varnish it and possibly, frame it. Its been added to my website and soon will be updated on my online gallery and storefront.

What is your favorite nature destination? I would love to hear about it.

 

Upcoming Series : Portraits of National Parks

Art has given wings to my imagination and opened up the windows of limitless possibilities! Without art and creative outlet, I had never known the beauty and intrigue a simple piece of nature can hold. I feel very fortunate to have a life surrounded by the natural beauty and a gift to be able to express it into my way of interpretation.

 Color Study for the Upcoming Series - Portraits of National Parks

As I move along my new series here is the tentative plan. I would choose some of the national parks and a few other landscapes that I admire. There is no particular order but some of the shortlisted landscapes will include:

1. Big Horn Mountain, Wy
2. Glacier National Park, Mt
3. Big Sur, Ca
4. Echo National Park, Ut
5. Joshua Tree National Park, Ca
6. Grand Teton National Park, Wy
7. Denali National Park, Ak
8. Yosemite National Park, Ca
9. Grand Canyon National Park, Az
10. Acadia National Park, Me

Portraits of National Parks - #2 Glacier National Park, Mt

 

Glacier National Park is a 1,583-sq.-mi. wilderness area in Montana's Rocky Mountains, with glacier-carved peaks and valleys running to the Canadian border. It's crossed by the mountainous Going-to-the-Sun Road. Among more than 700 miles of hiking trails, it has a route to photogenic Hidden Lake. Other activities include backpacking, cycling and camping. Diverse wildlife ranges from mountain goats to grizzly bears. (Source: Wikipedia)

Its amazing beauty, colorfulness, and grace is impossible to miss among the landscape of national parks. I used a limited palette of colors as the vibrant natural contrasts capture the eye and bring a sense of calm.

"Glacier National Park"

Oil

12 x 16 approx

2016

I would love to know what's your favorite national park, here in US or anywhere else in the World?

Portraits of National Parks - #1 Bighorn Mountains, Wy

 The Summer has an elixiric effect on the creatives. Bleaching sun, longer days, and overload of inspiration - makes a perfect recipe to get outdoors and paint. This summer is especially generous and I could devote myself to some of the most beautiful national parks.

Growing up in the mountainous region, I have special bond and affinity for the beauty of grandeur and enormity that mountains offer us.

"Bighorn Mountains" - Portrait of National Park #1

Oil

12 x 16 unframed

2016 

This is a landscape of Bighorn Mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana, forming a northwest-trending spur from the Rocky Mountains extending approximately 200 miles northward on the Great Plains.

Conveniently located halfway between Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park, the Bighorns are a great vacation destination in themselves. No region in Wyoming is provided with a more diverse landscape - from lush grasslands to alpine meadows, from crystal-clear lakes to glacially-carved valleys, from rolling hills to sheer mountain walls.

 Lush brushstrokes of cad yellow, cerulean blue and a mix of violets

Purple, pinks, and sienna in different proportions

Crimson, Rose accented on sienna and lemon yellow

I took artistic liberty to paint the scene with the colors that I saw, not the ones that were there. Painting nature made the heart sing, go wild, and be one with the nature. 

Oscar Inspired Portrait of a Baby Chimpanzee

Oil

24 x 24 approx

2016

"Proud as a Peacock"

 Any art portfolio seems incomplete without the painting of a peacock. So, here is my humble attempt to paint one.

 "Proud as a Peacock"

Oil

2016

The title of the artwork has been inspired by the following story -

In 1956, John J. Graham created an abstraction of an 11-feathered peacock logo for American broadcaster NBC. This brightly hued peacock was adopted due to the increase in color programming. NBC's first color broadcasts showed a still frame of the colorful peacock. The emblem made its first on-air appearance in 1956. NBC later adopted the slogan "We're proud as a peacock!" The current version of the logo debuted in 1986 and has six feather colors (yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green).  

Fearless Peacock in Ardenwood Farm

There are two Asiatic bird species Indian and African peafowl. Among the Asiatic species, his extravagant eye-spotted tail covert feathers which he displays as part of a courtship ritual. The term peacock is properly reserved for the male; the female is known as a peahen, and the immature offspring are called peachicks.

As with many birds, vibrant iridescent plumage colors are not primarily pigments, but structural coloration.

 
Indian peacock has iridescent coloration and large "train" of feathers that according to Darwin served to attract females, and the showy features of the males had evolved by the preferential selection.

In many cultures, peacock is often associated with wealth, good luck, and marital bliss.

Catholics adopted the symbol of the peacock to represent resurrection, renewal and immortality. This came from the ancient legend that the flesh of the peacock did not decay. In Hindu culture, the peacock is the vehicle of Lord Kartikeya, the god of war. Peacock feathers symbolize the fine taste, beauty, and perfection.




Kartikeya as painted by iconic painter Raja Ravi Varma

It is thus common to decorate with the imagery of peacock and/or peacock feathers. For more pictures and progress log on this artwork is wip. I hope to share it soon.