Vani Pippalla Akula's Art Blog

Seasons Greetings from Vani Satya Akula's Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 15:46:00 +0000

Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year!

Crabapple Blossoms, Oil painting, 9 x 12, $700

Invitation to my Solo Exhibit

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 02:05:00 +0000

Closing Reception: Thursday, August 28th, 4 - 6:30 PM

Two Awards One Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Mon, 26 May 2014 15:37:00 +0000

My painting "39 East First street, 18 x 24, $1600" won the People's choice award and Southside Corning award at the Architecture of Corning juried art show

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Mon, 19 May 2014 00:46:00 +0000

You are invited!
My painting, 39 East First Street, has been juried into the art of Corning's Architecture show. This building is part of a church and opposite 171 Cedar Arts in Corning, NY. Since I have moved to this area I have spent many hours admiring, sketching and drawing this building as I waited through my kids classes. The call for artists this season was a perfect excuse for me to paint this. My favorite time of the year for this building is actually fall where the beautiful colors of the leaves weave a joyful tapestry across the grey building. However the shadow of the tree on the building during winter is pretty exciting too. So, here we go.

Tuesday is the opening reception. There is a People's choice award, so if you visit, do cast your vote in favor of your favorite painting.

39 East First Street, Corning , 18 x 24, $1600 , oil

My painting featured in a Book

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Tue, 13 May 2014 01:39:00 +0000

My Alla Prima or "Paint as you pose" painting of Howard Coleman is featured in this book. The invitation for opening is attached. Hope to see you guys there.

Alla Prima Portrait Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 16:16:00 +0000

Alla Prima Portrait Painting

$270.00

Workshop Dates: 2/1/2014 - 2/2/2014

Location: Franklin Street Gallery, watkins Glen, NY

209 N. Franklin St , Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen New York 14891

United States

www.vanifineart.com

Alla Prima Portrait Painting

Saturday & Sunday, February 1 & 2 | 10 AM - 4 PM

Instructor: Vani Akula | Fee: $270

Learn the basics of portraiture using the alla prima classical painting method. This is a 2 day workshop that will focus on proportions, turning form, capturing mood and likeness using a live model. Students at all levels are welcome.

Contact Information:

Cynthia Hill

gallery@arcofschuyler.org

607-535-2571

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 01:06:00 +0000

www.vanifineart.com

Rainy day near Rockwell museum, oil 9 x 12, $700

Limited edition print on canvas, $100

Acceptance into Southern Tier Biennial Juried Exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 15:12:00 +0000

My painting Red Dahlias and Ganesh, has been juried into the Southern Tier Biennial.

The opening reception and awards is on September 21st at Olean Public Library gallery followed by a celebration at Jamestown Community College's Center gallery. Exhibition is on till October 25th.

Red Dahlias and Ganesh, 12 x 16, oil on linen

Greetings

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 23:39:00 +0000

Wishing everyone Joyful Holidays

and a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year

Dogwood and Cardinal, 6 x 8, oil on canvas

Alla Prima Still life Painting Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Instructor: Vani S. P. Akula

Time:10:00AM - 4:00PM , Saturday & Sunday, November 10 and November 11, 2012

Location: Franklin Street Gallery, 209 N. Franklin St, Watkins Glen, NY

Fee: $210.

To register: Cynthia Hill, 607 535 2571 or CHill@arcofschuyler.org

Students will compose a dramatic still life using a shadow box. They will then learn the art of observing and translating that still life into a three dimensional painting with oils. Personal attention will be paid to each student. Group size is limited to 6 members. The workshop includes an artist demonsration. Students are welcome to bring objects of interest to paint. Upon registration, a list of materials will be provided.

Arnot Art Museum's Gallery Gala Paintings

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:27:00 +0000

I had 3 paintings at the Arnot Art museum's biennial gallery gala art exhibition and below are two of them.

9 x 12 , oil on board, Rainy day near Rockwell Museum

Though I am not much into painting modern objects, the play of lights on the road on rainy days excites me. This is one of my many rainy day paintings.

12 x 24 , oil on board, Airport Landscape

For many mornings on my ride back home from my daughter's school, I saw this perfectly highlighted plane framed by the blue hills in the distance, with clouds weaving through them at the Elmira Corning airport. Even though I love flying, the thought of painting "metal" planes didn't excite me. However this unique picture of man made beauty juxtaposed against nature kept enticing me till I couldn't resist it anymore.

Alla Prima Still Life Painting workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Instructor: Vani S. P. Akula

Time:10:00AM - 4:00PM , Saturday & Sunday, March 17 & 18

Location: Franklin Street Gallery, 209 N. Franklin St, Watkins Glen, NY

Fee: $210.

To register: 607 535 2571 or www.facebook.com/franklinstreetgalleryandgiftshop

Learn to compose a dramatic still life using a shadow box. Then, paint it Alla Prima ( from life ) with a classical look. This two day work-shop will focus on composition, color harmony, planes and reflection of light and manipulating paint to capture light and color. Personal attention will be paid since the group is limited to 8 members. Workshop includes an artist demonstration. Students are welcome to bring objects of interest to paint. Upon registration a list of materials will be provided.

Still life with lotuses 18 x 24 oil on linen

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:37:00 +0000

Lotuses are one of my favorite flowers. Besides looking divine while growing in murky and muddy waters, they have a composite petal coloring that is not easy to capture. The petals can go from bright pink corners to white where light hits it. I thought it would be fun to capture these varied petal shapes and colors. I ordered these lotuses from india and they arrived as buds. It was fun opening the petals.
Knowing how quickly they wilt, I set up the entire composition before pulling the flowers out of the fridge. I decided to keep the background very dark and not play with it as i have been doing in my recent paintings. Did a study and then painted the larger18 x 24 later. After I did this study , while travelling, I found yellow lliles growing in a lakeside pond in pennsylvania. Only problem was it is impossible to pick these flowers unless you are willing to get neck deep into murky waters.

Bliss

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:41:00 +0000

36 x 48, oil on linen

September is a terrific month for dinner plate dahlias. I set this still life with an almost life size white ceramic sculpture of Buddha. The morning sun cast a good play of light shadow. I choose to arrange the flowers in a chaotic manner to represent the beauty in our chaos of a world. Buddha is in a state of complete bliss or nirvana in this environment. This time I played a lot with the background and painted the flowers thickly

Crabapple blossoms

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:42:00 +0000

12 x 24 oil on panel

Crabapple blossoms are delicate and graceful. A carved wooden panel from India with stories from Indian mythology provided a perfect sturdy background to paint the delicate flowers.

Ganesh and Mountain Laurels 9 x 12

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:39:00 +0000

In the last week of may I took a workshop with Sherrie Mcgraw in CT. The pink mountain laurels that I saw there caught my fancy. These were deep magenta flowers that opened to a light pink and when the light hit them were a beautiful white. I brought a bunch home to paint. This gave me a chance to set up a color combination I had been contemplating for a while, pink and grey. A little clay ganesh I had was perfect for the setup.

Mums and Ganesh

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:08:00 +0000

It's been a while since I have posted so i have been asked if I am painting infrequently. On the contrary, I am painting with more discipline now. :-) . Just doing larger and more complex compositions. Here is my latest. Ganesh, the elephant headed god with big mums. I love spider and football mums. They are elegant and graceful. The many petals seemed to challenge me to paint. I also love this ganesha that is of tibetan origin. This idol is made of pancha loha or 5 metals (gold, silver, copper, brass and iron/lead. ). The flowers seemed like a nice match with ganesha and I set up this composition. The colors of the idol change in different light and this was a challenge, that I never anticipated before. Didn't want to risk moving the position of my flowers by moving this to a shadow box, lesson learned :-)! I had to stick to painting the idol on cloudy days. After my initial sketches of the composition to determine values and my quick sketch on a 8 x 10.

I started the painting on a 20 x 24 linen canvas. I painted the mums first which have a limited shelflife

and then moved on to completing the entire painting at a more convenient time. Enjoy!

Painting from Observation (Zebra Finch 5 x 7)

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:44:00 +0000

On tuesday I decided to paint from observation. Take a quick look at an object and then recollect what I saw and paint it without looking at it again. The objective was to improve my observation skills. I decided I would paint caged zebra finches at the Chemung Valley Montessori school. I requested preschool teachers Jennifer and Maria to do this after their school hours and instead got invited to paint in class. Since the audience of 3 to 6 yr olds seemed forgiving I agreed.

I set up and started to draw. Boy, was that a mistake. Those finches did not even pose for 1 complete second for me. They moved and never seemed to settle back in the same pose. The prettiest of the two was even more audacious. Just refused to keep the same pose :-(

Now not only was I challenging myself I actually risked being a complete idiot in front of 20 young kids. I finally overcame my nerves , mustered enough courage, focused on my observation and here's the result.

Needless to say my audience was spellbound :-) LOL . "You are a really good artist to paint like that" said a little kid. "I want to be an artist" said another. I got loads of thank yous and hugs. "I should paint more in front of young children", I was making a mental note to my new inspired self as I returned to the stilllife waiting for me at home.

Offering 18 x 24

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:28:00 +0000

Welcome (12 x 24)

This ia the piece selected for exhibiting at the show "A tribute to Tom Buechner" on oct 12th at West End Gallery. This figure with folded hands welcomes guests to my house. I love watching the cool north light highlighting the dark figure. I set this still life with my clematis and highlighted the welcoming hands with warm candlelight while the cool north light hit the face.

"Face Off" from PSOA Conference 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 01:40:00 +0000

Went to attend the forum at the Portrait Society of America conference in DC on "Contemporary Art: Realist Revolution and Critical Relevance, Is main stream media missing an important cultural trend". While there checked the "face off" paintings. "Face off" is 2 hour demo by the invited faculty for the conference in a hall where every 2 -3 artists are assigned a model. The paintings are then auctioned. I have attached the paintings. Enjoy.

Easter Lily

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Spring beckons me. I love the spring flowers that are as shortlived as gorgeous. In the past I have escaped painting some of these flowers trying to fit them into my schedule. This year I am pursuing them with a vigor!!

Here is an easter lily. Though the finished image is 8 x 16 the scanner got only a portion of the painting.
And here is the painting in process.

I have to keep reminding myself that flowers are transient, they can't adapt to my schedule! I have to fit into their life schedule :-). Started the painting while there were 2 unopened buds and by the time I finished all of them had opened up. Having a warm light shining at them seems to just hasten the process of blooming too. Luckily, one thing I have learned from plein air is to finish what is expected to change first and then work on things that can last. Seems to work :-)

In the works next are cherry blossoms!!

You are invited to a solo exhibit of Vani Pippalla Akula

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:25:00 +0000

3rd prize in Elmira street painting festival

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:07:00 +0000

I participated in the first Emira downtown street festival which ran for 2 days and won third prize. Above is a picture washed out by the initial showers the 2nd day. It was my pastel painting in more than 20 years. It was fun. doing this art. I did an anamorphic art. The picture below is distorted but the actual reflection in the mirror reveals 3 veiled women. The first day was bright and sunny and it poured the next day. I wish I had taken a picture the first day :-(

when the colors were brighter.

Mr. JOVIAL or Mr. GRUMPY?

noreply@blogger.com (Vani Pippalla Akula) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:25:00 +0000

7" x 7" oil on gessoed board The model for the portrait group was sick and a kind , friendly, jovial colleague offered to pose. However a few minutes into the pose he started to look very serious and grumpy. All traces of jovialness, was removed. I kept thinking "Never judge a book by it's cover" while I was painting this.