Ninalee Irani - Visual Artist

Rainy Days Get Brighter
     Oil on Cradled Board     11 x 14"

I didn't intend for the background of this piece to be so grumpy, but instead of painting over it with an obvious brighter color that would be better suited to the subject of florals, I decided to go with it and use the suicide grey as a challenge.  I like the contrast of the moody background with the airy tulips and gentle bird. 

The final portrait of a feathered couple.  A high percentage of bird species are considered monogamous, but monogamy in their world can mean one to four breeding seasons, and after that they're dating again.  All of this business of being married for twenty years doesn't normally happen in the world of flyers, but a painting of the concept makes for a nice Valentine's Day gift.

This guy needs more definition around his belly so he doesn't resemble a weeble so much and looks a bit fluffier.  Right now he's just bloated.  Once he's dry, I'll go in and give him some abs.

Three more layers have gone on - one thick and two thin.  One never knows how these washes are going to behave, and part of the creative process is being able to let go of my controlling side, which comes out when I decide to paint florals and fruit.  I'll wait a couple of days before I start the birds so the background isn't so wet that I can't blend the edges properly. 

Two layers of oil wash (mixed with linseed oil) have been added, along with some drips, dabs, and thicker sections of gray put on with a palete knife.  Now, if I can be properly patient, I'll add more wash in about three days.

I'm happy to note here that I am now represented by  Saffron Studios in Cochrane, Alberta, and they are carrying a few of my bird paintings.  If you're in the area, please pop by to take a look at a piece in person.

After painting a large floral still life (One Yellow Tulip), I'm starting another small bird piece - with two chubby sparrows posing as the couple.  It is the beginning of January after all... most people are feeling a little chubby.  They have been sketched here on a 12 x 12" cradled board, over two sanded layers of gesso.

Acrylic underpaint goes on in a thin layer...

When it starts to snow here, I usually start painting either beaches or flowers.  This is the demo piece I didn't complete when I painted at Cabin Cafe last weekend.  I was having too good a time chatting with coffee drinkers to focus on brush strokes.  In this piece I concentrated on the basic shapes and left out a lot of details, remembering that the colors are the stars of this show.

I'll be painting at a local coffee shop - The Cabin Cafe - on Sunday the 13th if you'd like to drop by.  They have great coffee and lots of seating, not to mention the rustic wood burning fireplace for wintery days.  They're on Bow Trail and 45th Street in Calgary.

My husband has a friend who is fond of Instagramming his sandwiches, and the caption usually lists what the contents are.  He makes plain old sandwiches look like works of art somehow, so for a host & hostess gift for a party he held last weekend, I painted one of his creations, and my husband had the caption etched at the top.  So fun to paint a sandwich!

When you decide to have a leaded latte at 7:00 pm, it's amazing how quickly you can finish a painting.  I didn't actually paint faster, I was just able to paint for much longer, and might have finished the whole piece if this layer didn't need to dry before the final highlights and lowlights enter the picture with a dry brush.  These tulips are painted alla prima - wet into wet, with linseed oil as my base.

The mess the tulips made...

The days are getting considerably chillier, and we've already had a little snow.  Time to paint flowers. 

Parrot Tulips in Progress - 16 x 16"

Parrot Tulips       16 x 16"   Oil on Cradled Board

I've painted many tulips before, but these Parrot tulips were much more challenging with all of their folds and ruffles than the standard variety.  It was also refreshing to paint a dark background, since I usually lean on the lighter colors.    And since the stores are already displaying Christmas trees and sparkly ornaments, I feel like it's okay for me to share my New Year's resolution with you here:  frequent blog posts.  Not every three weeks frequent, but more like twice a week frequent, since blogging is one of the best ways to stay on top of painting.  It should be the other way around, but oh well - I seem to do quite a few things backwards.

A couple of weeks ago, our neighbours found a small bird in their yard who was injured and couldn't fly away from the three children who wanted to love her. She looked like a type of Waxwing, and really didn't seem to mind having her food and water brought to her feet for a change.  It took two days for her to take off, but not before I went next door with my camera and shot about 100 pictures.  She is the model for the perimeter of the birds in this painting.

A Patient Companion            16 x 16"         Oil on Cradled Board

We spent last week in California, mostly in Monterey and Carmel, and now all I want to paint are beaches and cheese.  The beaches are an obvious choice because when you live in the Canadian Prairies being on a beach is a big deal.  I'd forgotten, though, how beaches smell.  If that smell is in the air here at home, we're worried that something has gone rotten, or worse - died.... but that smell accompanied by soft white sand and huge crashing waves is for some reason completely welcoming.  It smells like vacation.

Fromage.   Make sure you say that with a fancy French accent:)  It didn't matter if we were in a little grocery store, or walking by a specialty cheese shop, the cheese displays were works of art.  They were piled, varied, balanced, and accessorized with edible flowers  - they made cheese look very important and not at all like the smelly masses they are.  Smell seems to be a theme here.  I'm not sure how I'll approach a cheesy painting, but I'm thinking it will be tough to recognize the subject unless it's rather realistic.

Before I think about that too much, I'll finish the piece I'm working on now, which is based on this image that I snapped at our hotel.  I know - the most horrible lighting on the planet for a reference photo, but I'll fake the highlights and contrast.   He looks relaxed, doesn't he?

All I had time for today was a quick study of some roses that I picked up from the grocery store this morning.  Wilted and sad looking, I chopped their stems, put them in some Sprite, and within an hour they were perky again.

Please ignore the time on this blog that states when a post was published, because apparently this computer thinks I live in England.... seven hours ahead of my time.

I'm happy with this final piece, and am glad the single egg is yellow.  Another blue egg would have looked too repetitive.

A close-up of a made-up and therefore unclassified species of bird.

The nests at the top of my easel are what I use for reference - they were a gift from a fellow painter who bought them for our first show.  My section of the venue was, of course, filled with bird paintings, so the nests were a perfect addition.

I have a sad story.  The amazing artist who I recently took a workshop from, and wrote about in earlier blog posts - Carol Marine - lives in the part of Texas that has been hit by out of control fires and has lost absolutely everything material. Thankfully, she and her family are safe, but everything they own including their home and painting studio is gone and they are starting from scratch.

Carol and her husband are continuously running fundraisers for people in need through their Daily Paintworks website.  They are generous, community people who are always helping others, so if you are wondering how you might be able to help them, you can go to this site, and click the donate button to help Carol, David, and their son get back on their feet.

It's starting to take shape, and I'm not sure if the single egg will be blue like the others or if it will be yellow.  I have to decide where I want your eye to go.  

A reader asked me what I'm doing with the right side of the board, and the answer is that I'm using it as a handle so when I pick up the painting I don't get mucky hands.  When the piece is completely dry, I'll take it out to my picnic table along with a hand saw and cut off those extra few inches.  No, that doesn't make me nervous - what could go wrong?

What a mess!  Three days, gesso, underpaint, and two layers of oil wash for this, and I don't even know what the final outcome will be - but maybe I'm not supposed to write that.  You never really know until you decide that one more drop of paint will make the piece muddy, and therefore force yourself to stop.  The risk of not being a planning painter is that paintings might turn out to be complete flops, but when I plan a piece to the end before I've even started I've taken the oomph out of the process, and it feels way too much like a job.  Relax!  Go with the flow!  Not my personality in the other areas of my life since I like to know exactly what's going to happen, but the philosophy works with paint.

Just for fun....    I wanted to see what a stack of birds would look like.

9 x 9"  Oil on Board

This 9 x 12" study was a color test for the larger painting  - Morning of the Navjote, which is on my main page.  I don't usually paint bright like this, but I've written about my love of the blue and orange combo before.  I guess turquoise and cerulean against burnt umber, raw sienna, and titanium white is a more accurate description for all of the painters out there:)   This time I just made the blue dominant, with a mixture of cad yellow and phthalo blue to create a green to break up the background.