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

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 :)

Spring Fling

Last Sunday was the first show for this year and it was a small vendor fair at a local bar. It was good practice to pull out all the fair gear after the move and also do a quick indoor set up. I have another similar event coming up this weekend for a fundraiser. 

Unfortunately the event was not well attended and I barely made up the booth fees. I did three sets of henna - two for other vendors and sold three note cards. Still it was good to be out and about, making some contacts. Luckily, the event was only for four hours. 

Doing the henna was really fun especially since two of them had never done it before. The paste I used this time turned out to be very good. The stain below was after almost a day - a sample test I did on my palm. A week later, in spite of innumerable hand washes, the stain is still there. I hope the clients were happy with how the stain turned out for them!

Summer Fairs

Spring is almost here and summer will be upon us soon and with summer comes all the wonderful summer fairs. This year I am planning to do more events than I did last year! And the month of May is already looking to be pretty busy and I am starting to paint a lot, both large and small pieces in preparing to be ready for the summer events. Here is a series of small works I am doing for the summer shows - all of these are on 6" x 6", Textured acrylics on canvas. Sides are painted the same background colors and the right & left ones have patterns. These definitely add a little extra color to one's space!