Archive for the ‘bellydance’ Category
Ecstasy
These days, when I upload my paintings to flickr, it automatically gets updated on Google Buzz. This way, my family gets to follow my paintings regularly. My parents do not generally visit my blog or follow what I do. But then, since Buzz is so on-your-face, they do not miss anything.:) At a time when social media is nothing but suffocating, I was so not interested in embracing yet another place to post mindless status updates. I have however not deactivated buzz for the sole reason that it saves my folks the trouble of remembering my blog url or any such things.:) Though I do not post anything new to Buzz, the auto update from flickr is good for me.
Ecstasy
Acrylics on Canvas, 16 x 20 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
This one is completed and signed, but something about her body/anatomy doesn’t seem alright to me. I thought I have made the hands too small, but looks like that isn’t the case. So while I am unsure of what exactly is missing, I have kept it aside to take another look after a few days. I hope some flaw pops out at me 
Your feedback is welcome!
Break Free
After painting some legs, I think it is time to do a whole body again. So I am getting back to my belly dancers and capturing movement. One of the ideas that I employ in this series is a haphazard background. I wanted the background with large amounts of red, as it is fire and passion that I want to portray. By making the background rather hazy and with very visible broad brushstrokes, it gives a better sense of movement than what a still background would do. And painting the background is one of the most exciting part of the series, as I just play around to my heart’s content and keep applying color as wild as I can.
Break Free
Acrylics on Canvas, 16 x 20 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
This painting is based on a reference from Flickr photographer Adelita Chohfi. With this reference, it was love at first sight, and the flowing hair on her face is what did it for me. The idea of depicting complete freedom and happiness, without showing even a bit of the face or a smile was a fascinating idea and I just *had* to paint this one.
The mood of the painting, and the title, all represent very precisely the kind of mood that I was in while doing this. Over the last few days, I was obsessing over a self portrait, which turned out to be a disaster. I cannot explain how depressed I was with it. I thought I gave it a decent start, but then it turned out really bad. I tweaked it to no end, spent a lot of time and energy tweaking it but it was a lost cause. I did complete the painting and post it on WetCanvas, where people did have nice things to say. But I am totally bugged and will not be posting it elsewhere. Anyway, getting back to this painting, this was the perfect way to unwind for me, after a portrait where I harped so much about the details. This one is so exactly opposite, no detail whatsoever, and is all about mood. I literally did leave myself loose and had maximum fun painting this. And I really like how it turned out.
Your feedback is welcome!
Let your hair down
Continuing with my series, this is my 3rd painting of belly dancers. There is one more to go as of now. All these paintings have been done based on the photos of Flickr photographer Adelita Choffi. While I was searching for pictures of dancers, I came across her treasure trove of snaps, all of beautiful belly dancers. She was generous enough to allow me to use them as references for paintings. I have favourited several more of her snaps, and will probably get to them after a while.
I might even extend this kind of a series to paint the various different forms of dance. There are too many exciting possibilities and I need to think before I jump in.
Let your hair down
16 * 20, Acrylics on Gallery wrapped canvas
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan
Unleashed
I love dance as an art form to bits, and not knowing to dance is one of my biggest regrets in life. I did not pursue it despite having had an opportunity to learn. This series of mine essentially aims to celebrate the beauty of the art form, and also the grace of the female form. I wanted the paintings to ooze passion, and that’s the basis for my color choices. I have gone in for a lot of oranges and reds in the background, as I believe it denotes a surge of passion. I aim to capture movement, with emphasis on the body language and not on facial expression. I wanted the whole figure to convey a sense of passion, true to the words “Dance like no one’s watching”.16 * 20 inches, Acrylics on Gallery wrapped canvas
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan
While I chose blue in her dress mainly because the complementary colors would work well together, I also chose it keeping the peacock in mind. When I was thinking about dancing without a care in the world, or just dancing to your own heartbeat, the peacock was what popped up in my mind first. Hence I have gone in for a lot of Pthalo Turqiose in the dresses.
The style is different from what I normally do, on quite a few counts. This is the first time I have tried to paint focusing on what I “feel”, rather than what I “see”. This could perhaps be a new direction in my work, but I cannot say that for sure now. The style in which the background is done, is totally new. I painted like a woman possessed, dabbing color randomly. I wanted to have fun and yes I did. A lot.
Even with the dancers, I have given all the detailing only to the face and the hair. The hands have not been done as detailed as I’d usually do them. Since I wanted to focus only on the face and hair, I chose to go a little loose with the hands. The dresses also have intricate mirror work and beads in my references. I have omitted all of those and just briefly indicated some designs. I think it works well, but it remains to be seen if I still like it say after a week. I might get back to it and change something if I don’t like it.
Dance like no one’s watching – a new series
Whenever I come across very high quality of Art that I greatly admire, it motivates me to work harder at my own art and improve myself. It also happens more often than not, that I get intimidated by awesome artists that I come across. It makes me feel I should strive to be that good, but the realization also dawns that being that good gets tougher with every passing day. I get bogged down that there is a long long way to go, and during every phase of introspection, I invariably feel I have just begun.Dance like no one’s watching
16 * 20 inches, Acrylics on Gallery wrapped canvas
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan
While I was bogged down by self doubt and a serious loss of confidence, the only way to overcome that was of course to paint something. And for a change I wanted to paint something with reckless abandon, just slap the paint without being bothered about detail. When you lose yourself in the process of painting, the surrounding world hardly matters. And that’s the motive behind this new series, a sort of reminder to self, to dance only to your own heartbeat, without a care in the world. There are 4 pieces in all, all of them of beautiful dancers.
I had a tough time getting this face right, due to the different angle. I am very comfortable painting faces that look straight, but these kind of faces give me jitters. And those hands were a nightmare. I thought I had painted them very big, but turned out they were actually much smaller than they should’ve been. I posted WIPs and got some very useful feedback from friends at the Acrylics forum in WetCanvas. One of the artists actually took the time to edit my painting in photoshop to show me how the anatomy wasn’t quite right. And that’s why I love WetCanvas. People go out of their way to help and guide others, and you can never really get away with a badly done piece of work 
