2019 Calendars

2019 Calendars are here and I am thrilled with how they have turned out! 14 of my floral painting images on a 11" x 17" glossy wall calendar. I changed printers this year and printed a lot more than usual. These are staple - stitched instead of spiral bound and have an extra page for notes. I have already started using mine to mark off show dates for next year!

Get yours here!

Playing with Pigments

I had a bit of extra fun in the studio today! I had recently ordered some samples of chromogenic pigments - pigments that change color - either based on sunlight or temperature. I got to play with one that changed color from coral to purple in sunlight today. I was only going to use them on small items like stones and mini-mandalas, but the recommendation was to use them on white or light colored backgrounds. With all the canvas prepped for my owl series with lighter backgrounds just sitting on the table, I couldn't help myself :) I am sure this barred owl piece is going to be very exciting when finished!

On the left is the coral color in shade and it turns to purple in sunlight!

I applied the coral to purple chromogenic pigment to a bunch of stones also, hence they are all lined up with the sunlight on the table. I didn't use as much pigment as I should have - didn't measure the ratio of pigment to medium - so the color change on the stones is not dramatic like the owl piece. Also I didn't start with a lighter background on these stones.

And to round out the day, I spent most of pre- & post-dinner hours working on this piece - in my Rising series. It's a 3' x 4' canvas, so its going to be a while before it is done, but my hope is to take it with us to the Deep Ellum Arts Festival next month. 

Meditative Mandalas - Coloring Book

November was a hectic month in the studio with my time spent between finishing up a bunch of new paintings for the upcoming One of a Kind Show this weekend and my biggest project - Meditative Mandalas. I am so happy to announce that I have just published my Mandala Coloring Book! Over the years I have always said that I can paint, but I cannot draw. I threw out that notion with this completely hand drawn coloring book with 20 mediative mandala patterns. 

It was a little daunting to think of trying to sell a coloring book in an over-saturated market, but it felt like enough of my fans were asking about it & its something I have always wanted to do. Getting the book done was pushing my limits & challenging myself to hand draw near-perfect symmetry is one of the best things I have ever done! Now my goal is to sell 100 copies!

Here is a free sample page you can download & color! 

I have posted a few more photos & videos on my facebook page of the drawing process!

If you are in the US, you can order a copy of the book from my website! They will be shipped starting Dec 11. These books along with my calendars make an excellent stocking stuffer :)

Freinds & fans in India & Europe - you can now buy my coloring book on Amazon!

2018 Calendars

I can't believe it is already time to start planning for the next year! my first step in thinking about the next year is always in planning for the calendar. I got it designed and printed last week and it feels like a bit later than usual! Based on feedback from fans, the 2018 calendar features a mix of florals and mandala paintings from this year. I also redesigned my website a bit, set-up a new subdomain for my square marketplace and linked them all together. It's now easy to shop for calendars & prints from my website!

 

East Lansing Art Festival

East Lansing Art Festival was my first out of state show this season - on May 20, 21, 2017. I was invited back to this show as an award winner from last year. I decided to go back to this show in spite of the really traumatic experience of having a bunch of my paintings stolen last year. I was overwhelmed by the support of the community, the sheer number of people who reached out to me, shared the stolen pieces on social media, the efforts of the ELPD to recover them and the art fest. I was really hoping for a more positive experience this year. 

I had sent out 20 postcards to collectors & fans from last year to promote the show. I was also a featured artist on their social media & one of my pieces was shown on a TV ad airing in the area. I was excited to show off my new style of mandala paintings & I was also bringing another large elephant piece! I have a new line of florals I started creating in 2017 I was excited about showing in East Lansing.

We got there around 7 pm on Friday night for set-up. I had paid for a corner booth, way back in January. But on arriving we found that we did not have a corner as planned. It was very disappointing as I had brought inventory & planned for the lay out of my booth based on having a corner. Similar to Elmhurst, we were able to set up only the tent on Friday. We didn't want to leave any inventory in the booth overnight. We stayed in a nearby airbnb for the weekend and it was ok. 

The weather was also iffy this weekend with a little bit of rain on both days. However people came out and bought! My biggest sellers were the prints on Michigan state & the Spartans logo. I also sold quite a bit of the Block M prints :) I was thrilled to see so many people remembering us from last year & more than 5 people who signed up for my email list were already on it! 

There was an awards session along with dinner on Saturday evening. We were so exhausted from the drive, set-up & long day in the wind & rain that we went to bed at 8.30 and slept for a solid 10 hours. The take-down on Sunday went by quick & the load out was easy. I was also able to drive the van to my booth on Saturday & Sunday mornings to hang the paintings. 

We only sold a single original small 6"x6" painting, while we were closing up on Sunday. It was a little disappointing to not sell any originals, but at least we sold enough small items to make it a decent show. 

The director was apologetic about messing my corner location & I am not sure if having a corner would have made any difference in sales. We were home by 10pm on Sunday and though I wish we had done better, I don't have any complaints. Only regret was not being able to purchase an art piece from another artist that I liked - hopefully I will see them in another show where I make enough sales so I can choose to buy art too!

Elmhurst Art in Wilder Park

Elmhurst Art in Wilder Park, on May 6, 7 was my first outdoor show of the season for 2017! This is the third year I am doing the show & it is always an exciting one as we get to see so many of our artist friends after the winter break. This year we had the added bonus of having Miranda (http://www.mirandameyer.com/) & Stephen stay with us for the show. 

Our plan was to do the set-up for the show on Friday evening, we got to the venue around 5.30pm. Finding parking was not an issue, but my booth location had moved from the previous years due to rain & the ground being soggy in some places. We had to move the van again to get to a closer parking and dolly everything to our booth.

It's amazing how rusty we had gotten over the winter & it took forever, with a slew of amateur mistakes before we could set up the booth. Luckily we hadn't forgotten any part for the set-up like last year. It was also super-cold. Weather is always iffy at this show, given it is very early in the season. This year I had to pack all my winter gear including hand warmers for the show. We only managed to put the booth up & decided to hang the paintings the next morning. Just the tent & walls took more than 2.5 hours to get done!

We got there early around 8.30 on Saturday morning to finish the booth. I love having a corner booth at this show and it allows me to have more of my work out. Saturday was painfully slow and I had only 7 sales, not even making what I paid for the booth fee in sales. I had even run a facebook ad for the past 4 days promoting the show & my works. Shankar had taken back the front wall to close the booth home by mistake, so, I had to make an extra trip home before we could close up for the day. The highlight of the day was going to a nice Indian restaurant for dinner with friends & family!

Sales on Sunday was even worse than Saturday. The sun started coming out later in the day, though the temperature did not rise. Highlight of the day was quite a few friends stopping by & it was also nice to see a few of my collectors from the years before.

I didn't sell any original paintings & the sales of prints hardly made up for my expenses. A few other artist friends did not even make what I did. This show is the closest in distance & time to where we live. The location is great & so is the promoter. Unfortunately this is the second year I am not making any money doing this show & we have to seriously think about it for next year. I had such a great show the first year I was here and the weather is the biggest factor in determining the crowd & sales. Hoping the upcoming shows make up for this one!

Arts Alive

Last week I did a workshop for kids through a program called Arts Alive, funded by the Addison Center for the Arts. The class was at the local Junior High School and 5 students had signed up for my Mandala Designs class. I had three 6th graders and a couple of 8th graders. The class was in 2 sessions for about 2 hours each.

On the first day, all the kids prepared 2 canvases with the background colors they liked. The time went by really fast! It was a little surprising for me to learn that middle school kids have not used a compass to draw circles before. So it was interesting to teach them basic geometry before starting  to paint.

In the second session, they got to play with 3 dimensional fabric paint - a.k.a. puffy paint. They were painting mandalas similar to how I paint them and it was fun to teach this way of playing with paint to the kids.

One of the kids might soon get much better at this than me :) 

Check out how she is free-handing the pattern with fabric paint. 

There were a couple of times when I had to remind some of the kids to be respectful of the class & focus, but overall it was a fun and satisfying experience, and may be, I think I would be more open to working with kids again than I have been in the past. of course, it was also great to be part of a program that brings more art opportunities to kids who wouldn't otherwise get to explore things outside their regular class stuff. So proud of these budding artists :) 

Puppy Woes

I haven't worked on a floral in a long time and inspired by a couple of artists on social media, decided to give it a try for a new series for 2017. I also wanted the flowers to be based on my mandalas, but more organic. So, I started this piece on a nice, large 24" x 30" canvas on the beginning of this month. The first image below is the progress I had made on the end of day 2. Most of day 1 was working on the background and getting an idea of the layout & the colors. I had to take a day in between to travel for family stuff, but got back to the painting skipping doing fun stuff with the family. Second image below was end of progress on day 3 on working on this piece. 

Decided to take a break and go out for dinner with the visiting family and when I got back to the studio, the painting which was drying on top of my table, was half on the chair, covered in paint! Cue our adorable & anxiety laden puppy Kalai! She decided having mommy home for almost all day and having me step outside a bit was too much to handle. She had jumped all over the studio, unscrewed a bottle of paint and emptied on top of the painting and in jumping off sent the whole thing down to the chair and dripping paint on the floor. She also destroyed a pin cushion and managed to get all the pins out without hurting herself. I attempted to wash the excess paint off the piece in the bath tub and managed to get most of it out, but also some of what I wanted to stay.

I had to have my husband hide the piece, given how angry it made me and the frustration of not being able to do anything about it. After 2 days I started a very similar piece (below) and worked on it for another 3 days. I took it to get critiqued at one of my local art leagues and everyone loved it. Given the positive feedback, I finished another one for my show Dots & Lines at the Addison Center for the Arts.

This week, after a friend suggested it was a collaborative piece with Kalai, I finally managed to go back to the damaged one and work on it. Here is the finished piece, completing a series of 5 floral paintings. Two of them are already in a show and I am hanging another one in a new show starting tomorrow. I will be entering the fourth piece in a member show at an art league later this month. The story of a series 😏

Jellyfish Coloring Page

Been working on a new 12" x 16" Jellyfish for the last few days and finished it yesterday. I spent about 3 hours this morning creating a coloring page from it. First, I traced the outline from the painting on a tracing paper. Next off, I transferred the pattern to a large drawing sheet. Then I outlined the jellyfish with a black sharpie fine point. Then came the task of filling in the details with another black sharpie, ultra fine point. Took some hi-res images of it, converted the jpg into a pdf, and uploaded it to my google drive as a downloadable file. It was more work than I wanted to spend time on this morning, but I am loving it and hoping a bunch of people download it, color it and share it back with me! 

Get pdf to print

Jellyfish Coloring page

Prepping Canvas

Trying to fight off symptoms of a cold & cough, today was mostly spent in resting. However, the one thing I managed to do in the studio is to unpack all 10 of the 12x16 canvas I got yesterday & prep them. My first step in prepping the canvas is doing a colored background. usually using lemon yellow or shades of yellow, I create the toned background before even thinking about what I am going to paint on them. I do know some of these are going to be Festival Elephants & some of these are going to be Sugar Skulls. Yellow toned backgrounds work best for me as the colors I start on these are usually bright. Here is a good introduction on toned backgrounds for those interested. I also managed to use up the last of four(!) different tubes of yellow & was glad to chuck them out. New Year, New Paints :)

Stocking Up

Happy New Year! It's that time when I am taking stock of what's left over & ordering new stuff. I already took advantage of all the holiday sales / free shipping and got almost all of my paint supplies for next year. I also got a whole bunch of new canvases & after making a list of potential paintings I want to work on this year, ordered a bunch more. 

And the good guys from Fedex just dropped off these 6 boxes, ordered over the weekend!

One of my goals this year is to standardize the sizes in which I paint. Though it seems a little hard to eliminate a few sizes, I am not going to be working on 9x9, 9x12, 12x12 & 11x14 anymore. I am adding a couple of large sizes instead - like 36x36 & 36x48. 

Again, in 2016, I want to finish 100 titled pieces! May be more if I keep working diligently over this winter 'break'.  Off to prep & paint now!

2016 Calendars

2016 calendars are already here and they are disappearing fast! Fast enough that I have already ordered a second batch! This year, the theme is Mandala Paintings. There are 13 of my popular mandala paintings and 12 of them can be framed after the month is over. 

Printed on high quality premium glossy card stock paper and measures 8.5" x 11". There is also room to write on the dates. Only $16 + $4 shipping within US. Get yours today!

You can now purchase them directly from my website!

Click the link here: http://www.artbybala.com/calendar

Paints Galore

At least once every couple of weeks or so I get an email or facebook message from someone asking what kinds of paint I use for the paintings I create. I just counted the number of different paints I have in my studio - I have at least 20 brands of paint I use on a regular basis and another 5 or so that I have around. That is a lot of paint! Sometimes I have 1 or 2 colors in a specific brand and in others I might have their entire range. I also have about  8 - 10 different mediums I can use to thicken or thin my paints & add various types of textures to my works. What one has to realize when they start painting and want to ask other artists what they use is, not everyone they come across is a hobby artist. I am also a business woman and I keep investing in my business. 

                                

Since my paintings are created for sale, I make sure I use the best & high quality paint for the job. The paints I use do not fade or yellow or change color over time. They are also ones I love working with. The paints on the palette above are my recent discovery and I am in love with them! I use at least one of these colors in all the works I have been doing recently. I am constantly experimenting with my technique & working on improving my art. That means investing time & money to get quality products and learning to use them properly. To answer the question of what brand of paint I would recommend - my only advice would be to experiment for yourself to see which paints you like & which ones are best for what you want to do. Spend time talking to people working in your art supply store and they will provide recommendations on the kind of work you want to create. Be patient and take time playing with the paints till you are comfortable with their characteristics. I have been painting for a little more than 3 years now and I am always learning & discovering something new with my paints all the time!

FAQ - How long

One of the most frequently asked questions to me at Art Fairs is How long it takes me to do a particular piece / any of my paintings. It is also one of the most difficult questions to answer. Just to illustrate, this week from Monday through yesterday, here is everything I have been working on in the studio -

1, 2. Peacock on 24" x 36" canvas - started with prepping the canvas to quite a bit of progress! Thats from working almost 10 hour days

3. Dragonfly canvas made it back to my table to start the textured lines

4. A new flying owl piece on 24" x 30" canvas - prepped the background, drew the outline & added the eyes

5, 6. A new version of the Chicago flag - prepped 3 backgrounds in silver with interference green / red/ violet mixed in and started painting one.

7. Added one more circular layer on the red 24" x 36" diptych mandala

8, 12. Two new 20" x 24" Tree of Life paintings - did the background work last week and started with the trunks and shoots this week

9. Another peacock on 20" x 24" canvas - started from prepping the background on Monday

10. A set of 4 18" x 18" canvas prepped for mandala paintings

11. One more 24" x 36 background prep for another peacock!

When I am working on so many projects in parallel, it is really hard to think of time spent on just one piece. In fact a few years back I did estimate the time I spent on a 16" x 20" piece - turned out to be 38 hours from opening the canvas to the signing off on the piece. Well, when I also calculated what I actually made per hour on piece after selling it for $200 minus the cost of supplies, it got too depressing to think further about time spent on painting single pieces. 

So, please don't roll your eyes at me when I tell you I don't keep track of time spent on a painting, because I really don't and I can't think of a way when I can either. I hardly ever have just one project going on in the studio and given how easily I get distracted - from moving from one work to another, or starting something else when waiting for another to dry, estimating time is the last thing on my mind!

Floral Mandalas

A new series I have started recently are a different style of mandala paintings on canvas. My usual paintings all have concentric circles, but this series is more of a floral style, with next layers of the circle forming out of the previous layers. The canvas are also 16" x 20"  - not a square and with only the floral mandala and my signature, curved in a corner. These canvas can be hung in either orientation! The first two below - Blossom & Elegance, 2015 have already found wonderful collectors their second week on show. I painted the other two - Patience & Growth in the last two weeks and really liking how the series is turning out. 

These paintings are all done with 3-4 colors in the background and 1-2 colors in the textured layers. The textured dots & lines are done in dark & light shades of either gold or silver with one other accent iridescent color. By varying the shade and the thickness of the lines, the mandalas are more dramatic. If you are in the Chicago area, please come see these and my other paintings in person at one of my shows this summer.

 Blossom & Elegance, 2015. 16" x 20"

Textured henna style acrylic floral mandala painting on canvas with mirrors. 

© Bala Thiagarajan, 2015

 Patience, 2015. 16" x 20" 

Textured henna style acrylic floral mandala painting on canvas with mirrors. 

© Bala Thiagarajan, 2015

 Growth, 2015. 16" x 20" 

Textured henna style acrylic floral mandala painting on canvas with mirrors. 

© Bala Thiagarajan, 2015

Show Review: Spring Showcase of Arts & Crafts

My first formal show of the year was NSSEO foundation's Annual Spring Showcase of Arts and Crafts in Palatine, IL. The show is being put on by a non-profit aiding developmentally challenged kids and I was glad to be at the show starting this year's line up in March. 

Spring Showcase of Arts & Crafts, Booth #73

The show is in its 45th year and it seems to be losing its audience. It was very slow for both the days, in the afternoons especially. My booth was located on the stage in the gym and the four steps up to the stage was a big barrier. Most people did not want to climb up and hence all the stuff I had on the table, print bins and note card rack was mostly ignored. The advantage was that the paintings were visible from all over the room. I did manage to see a few trivets, a set of coasters and some cards. Definitely made up the booth fee over two days and may be recovered my cost of supplies. But there was no profit in the end. I was not ready with price tags to put by the paintings and hardly anyone even asked for the prices. There was one lady who loved my Chicago skyline painting and that was about it. The best part was one of my previous collectors stopped by with a friend and as always, its lovely to see my collectors and hearing how much they enjoy having one of my paintings at their home!

I am thankful to the organizers for trying to make the best of this event. There was a separate parking for the artists and shuttle buses to transport us. Free coffee was available throughout the day for artists and kids was bringing around food for sale. The organizers did listen to our concerns and are not going to put any one up on the stage next year. I know a few jewelers did pretty good in the show and some other crafters, but the photographer next to me did not and another painter also did not (though I have no clue on what is good - for them). It's questionable if I will come back next year!

Painting on a Whim

I painted this Mandala last Thursday night as I was waiting for one of my other paintings to dry. I got a little restless just waiting and pulled out this canvas that was already prepped with the brown earthy background. This is one of my favorite color combinations to paint - brown, gold, white, silver & turquoise. Sometimes creativity flows - fast :)

Earth Mandala, 2014. 12" x 12", 

Textured henna style acrylics mandala painting on canvas with mirror. 

© Bala Thiagarajan, 2014. www.artbybala.com

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Earrings for Sale

I just posted this album with about 30+ earrings I made yesterday. These are made for consignment at a local salon, but wanted to give my friends and fans the first go at them. They are $12 + shipping (will be sold for $16.50 at the salon). Send me a message if any of these interest you!

The pictures were taken late night with my iphone and hence the poor quality. The earrings are  mad with high quality beads, crystals & spacers with hypoallergenic materials. They are actually pretty bright & gorgeous in person :)

Feeling Accomplished

Golden Tree, 2014 was the 200th painting I have sent to a new home (including everything sold / donated / gifted) since February, 2012. The painting sold at the Holiday Sampler Fair in Elk Grove Village on Sunday. A big thank you to all my friends and fans for being a part of this incredible journey! 

Golden Tree, 2014. 12" x 16", Henna style textured acrylics abstract painting on canvas. 

(c) Bala Thiagarajan, 2014. www.artbybala.com 

Latest Painting: Goldfinch

The Goldfinch painting I have been working on this week is all finished and is available for purchase.

Waiting, 2014. 11" x 14", Textured henna style acrylic animal painting on canvas. 

© Bala Thiagarajan, 2014 www.ArtbyBala.com

This is a painting I have re-worked from an earlier version I did when I first started playing with acrylics about 4 years back. I have always felt that the initial one lacked the sparkle, though I liked the composition and the background color. 

The first step in the re-work was to outline the new finch, showing its back with more colors. Then I worked on the branches, adding textured lines in burnt sienna and metallic copper. The buds were updated with a shade of fuchsia & deep rose, and with bright green. I added a lot of molding paste to the finch outline to build up the texture. I want to work more on this line and create more depth in later works. 

Next came the colors and the textures. I left part of the original finch in the painting and thought it would be nice to show the two males as competing (establishing territories) - I am a bio geek, what can I say! But the hubby insisted he needs to go & a couple of friends on facebook suggested the same. So away he flew, leaving the entire tree to the new comer :)