Back from a Break

We were traveling in the land of Sunny California last week, visiting with friends and family. After a much needed get away and a wonderful time at art museums and meeting a couple of other artists, I am back from the break - much inspired and ready to be creative. I started this scarf last night and finished it today. As always, when I am in love with the yarn, the task goes so much faster! I am trying to finish a couple more of them for a small holiday fair I am doing on Dec 1. While on vacation, I also made a small hat, taught two friends to crochet, worked on two scarfs that are yet to be finished. 

I also managed to design and order prints for 2013 calendar featuring my artwork before we left and they also arrived in the mail yesterday. To take a look at my other works, please visit my facebook page: www.facebook.com/artbybala. The calendars are $15.00 with free shipping! To order,  click the shop now tab on the facebook page or from my website www.artbybala.com.

 

Scarf with Camel Wool

Day 9 of Art Every Day Month. Finished this scarf today. It's made from camel wool, spun to yarn in Mongolia by tribal women, and sold through the snow-leapord trust. It is super warm. I had to have a fan running while crocheting, otherwise I would start to sweat from the warmth of the yarn. Proceeds from the sale of this scarf will benefit the Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, FL. Measures 65x4.5". $70.00

 

Pattern Painting

Day 8 of AEDM. Here's a painting I finished tonight. Its 9x9" acrylics on gallery wrapped canvas. The gold pattern is outlined by a textured wine colored line. The sides are painted and have golden swirls on them. The patterns itself is inspired by Arabian motifs. It is definitely hard doing a symmetrical pattern free hand for sure!

 

Solar Plexus Chakra

Day 7 of Art Every Day Month. I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. I did a bunch of art -mostly progress stuff for Day 6. I prepped a couple of canvases, went to my stained glass class and foiled the piece I was working on. I thought I would get to finish it, but couldn't. Forgot to take the camera with me for a progress picture. I also started on a scarf with two different colored yarns, made from camel's wool - all the way from Mongolia. More on this when I finish and post the scarf.

For today - here is the Solar Plexus Chakra I finished. The red colored lines are textured. Its also 10x10", acrylics on a canvas panel, similar to the Crown Chakra. Two down and five to go in the Chakra Series :)

 

Colorful Scarf

This was a scarf I started a few days ago, but finished it today for AEDM - day 5. Its made from a beautiful acrylic yarn made in Turkey. The yarn was a pleasure to work with! Did I ever mention I am a sucker for variegated yarn? :)  The scarf is 61 x 5 inches. A perfect accessory for the winter!

 

 

Crown Chakra

For Day 4 of  Art Every Day Month, I painted a Crown Chakra. Textured acrylics on a 10x10 canvas panel. Needs to be framed. Lavish gold colors on a dark purple background. Its a lot more beautiful in person than the picture :)

 

Horned Owl

Its day-3 of Art Every Day Month and I am happy to be participating. Tonight I broke a long procrastination spell of not painting to finishing this owl in one sitting. I had the outline drawn about 3 weeks back and since then the canvas was sitting on the coffee table, waiting for progress.  And crocheting kept winning for my time and attention these past two weeks. Today, I was having some tough luck with crochet stuff and switched back to painting. I really needed to handle some paint today as I need to finish a commissioned piece that is already late and the reason for my procrastination. 

So, here is to my little henna-style owl, painted with acrylics on a 9x9" gallery wrapped canvas. I picked up a set of 4 of these on sale from Blick about 2-3 months back. The wol is textured with gold on a brown background with black textured lines. The sides are painted too. Now all he needs is a good home :)

 

Softee Scarf

More of fiber art for AEDM12! As I mentioned before, the new stash of yarn is so wonderful, it is hard for me to keep my hands off them. I started this scarf yesterday and it is already finished today! This one is one of the softest scarfs I have made so far. The blue yarn is baby alpaca wool + silk and is from Peru. The green yarn is alpaca with acrylic. The scarf is not only soft but is very warm. Perfect for winters - warmth of wool without the rough / itchy feeling especially under the jacket. The pattern I used is new for me and it was a fun one to work on. The scarf is 70x4.2" with another 3" of fringe. Will be listed in my shop soon.

 

 

Fiber Art for AEDM 2012

I have signed up for the Art Every Day Month in November, similar to the NaNoWriMo. Here is my work for the day. I started this scarf with two skeins of yellow and orange yarn a couple of days back. This afternoon I finished it and it will be listed for sale in my online shop tomorrow. I have created a similar scarf - same yarns, different pattern a couple of years back. This one measures 80 x 4.75" with an additional 6" of fringe. 

I recently bought quite a bit of yarn - about 60 dollars worth - to be precise from a girl who was reducing her stash. And now I am well stocked to do quite a bit of fiber art, especially with a week of travel coming up. Look for more scarfs in these pages :)

 

Crochet Season

Its not always just Dots & Lines at Art by Bala. Its Fall and its time to pull out the stash of yarn. I started crocheting again as a friend had a little one and I went back to finishing up an Afghan I started years ago. This little girl finally gave me the motivation to finish a beautiful project and I am sure she would like it. And as I was shopping for painting supplies last week, I saw the yarns for the scarf below, and fell in love with the colors and bought home two skeins of yarn and crocheted them together into this scarf. And the one below is slightly chunky with multiple colors of home spun super soft yarn. They are both listed for sale on my website (www.artbybala.com/shop).

 

Counting my Blessings

I realized a couple of weeks that I have sold more than 50 paintings since September of last year. And last night, I actually made a list of everything I have created / sold / donated / gifted. The final tally is Created: 86, Sold: 53, Donated: 3, Gifted: 6. And all of that not counting the ones from before last September. I still dont have a good way of managing inventory - that needs to happen once I can figure out a process to name the pieces. But for now, I feel so humbled by the wonderful support of family & friends & the community! 

Henna Style Peacock (@Bala Thiagarajan, 2012)

The Dali Museum

I was in Tampa, FL recently on vacation and in-between the trips to the beach, we hit the cities to get some good food. We camped for a few days on the waterfront and it was wonderful. The best part of the trip was of course the visit to the new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. They had so many of his works, and we were fortunate to see the 4 great masterworks: The Discovery of America (1959), The Ecumenical Council (1960), Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid (1963); and The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1970). These were recently restored and we were able to see the exhibit called Stipped Bare + Bathed: The Preservation of Dali's Masterworks and Dali's Grotesque Carnival too. It was quite the inspiration I needed to come back and work on a few more paintings!

 

  

  

Ideas & Inspirations

As an artist, one of the common questions asked frequently to me is where I get my ideas from and what are my sources of inspiration. Its an easy question, but a rather hard one to answer. For me there is no simple answer. I generally start my paintings with something in mind, but mostly develop as I go - particularly the henna style and mandala paintings. I usually draw an outline with pencil when I start, but that's about the planning. For jewelry I tend to assemble out what I want to make and go from there. Pictured below is an idea showcase to move from being stuck at my local bead store. 

I also tend to spend a lot of time looking at art by other artists and draw inspiration from that. Most often, I will get the urge to paint when I am browsing art. My favorite go to places are: Etsy, Deviant Art, and Pinterest. I also use PicClick to browse ebay art. Google images are helpful too. There is no limit to getting inspired from the comfort of my own couch :) We also spend time visiting museums, art galleries and other art walks / events as much as we can. My bookmarks are plentiful and there is no shortage of art to check out and be inspired. Even art supply stores have displays of work by their staff and they are very helpful in discussing tips & techniques!