Picnic By The Lake

Dreary winter days make me feel confined, and so I'm yearning for a picnic in bright sunshine. We were lucky to catch such a picnic last month... but now that seems a whole year behind us!

So maybe we need new settings. Umm, let's see, a lovely lakeside with clear blue water reflecting the azure of the skies, some multi-hued foliage, and of course, a table laden with goodies. Something like this maybe...

Tablescape inspired by a picture I came upon while blog crawling. Totally forgotten the source, again! :( Shucks, I really need to do something about my memory...

Meanwhile, hope you all will join me in this lovely setting for some cheese chomping and wine drinking (or is it champagne? Nah! no bubbles). :)

Brush With A Thrush

My birdie is ready for showing. And I can't thank the thrush enough for posing so beautifully on each of its visits to the birbath. :)

I wouldn't have noticed the fellow (given its bland browns) if it wasn't for the distinct sweetness of its calls. And soon it became one of my favourite birds to look out for. Its shyness and diffidence was so different from the racuous chatter of the sparrows.

I have tried to capture the satiated expression of the thrush after it has had a quick sip at the birdbath. Hope you enjoy this one....

A Birdie In The Winter Freeze

Fifteen days of a new month already past and no painting?!? Tch, tch, bad way to start the year...oh no, the decade!! The winter freeze has led to limited creativity at my end. This is all I managed in the last week. :(


But today the sun is out (despite the eclipse) and so I shall get down to finishing my birdie.

Just for the record, this is my very first attempt at doing birds. A large part of the inspiration comes from the very talented Geninne Zlatkins (you can see her lovely blog here), and the remaining bit from my good ol' birdbath that gets the regulars in despite the winters.

New Year Cheer & Santa Barbara Courthouse

Hurray for the first post of the new year, but look at the dichotomy.... the painting that it features is something I made on the last day of the last year! Well, such is life, it just flows from one year to the next... :)

Another cityscape this time, my humble attempt at capturing the beautiful old courthouse building in Santa Barbara, California (a place I was lucky enough to visit a couple of years back). Santa Barbara is a delightful town on the Pacific coast with a very Spanish-Mediterranean feel to it. Their architecture, especially the typical red-tiled roofs, is eye-catching.



The Santa Barbara Courthouse is one such building which is postcard pretty. This painting captures the arch at the entrance to the courthouse, and the clock tower from which you can get breathtaking views of the city.

As an aside, I confess that I haven't yet touched my brushes yet this year. Kids on vacation and the biting cold are big enough reasons for my staying away from my paints, but I hope to resume soon. Here's looking forward to a creatively challenging and satisfying year ahead!