The store has some new paintings added, oil pastels and acrylics and on the new paintings I have added a framed or unframed option of purchase. Pastels are harder to ship unframed but I've figured a way out for the interested ones you can do the framing on your own. If you are however interested in the framed version you will get the best professional framing through the website. Check it out and feel free to contact me with any questions you have. Thank you all for your continued support!!! 
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PKKGallery

A medium that dates back to the 15th century during which it gained prominence, pastels are almost pure art pigment held together with small quantities of binder. This is very different from chalk. The pigments here are the actual chemical pigments used in water colors, oil paints and therefore the medium is regarded as one of the purest forms of color. Of course pastels from different vendors vary in pigment/binder ratio which naturally dictates the hardness and vibrancy of the pastel colors. When I started painting I did not even know there were different types of pastels. As a kid I associated pastels to a richer pigment loaded form of crayon. Later I realized that those constituted the class of oil pastels one of the late mediums in the timeline of paint mediums. The legacy of pastels begins with the french/soft pastels used by the likes of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and or course one of my favorites, Edgar Degas. 
Tooth in your paper or canvas becomes a very important criteria with the soft pastels. Because they are almost pure pigment with no sort of gel or wax medium that enables application, the medium itself relies heavily on the grip (tooth) the paper can provide to hold on to the pigments. Therefore most people use sand paper or use a mix of acrylic gesso and pumice powder applied to another surface. One must of course keep in mind to watch your finger when you blend cause one could get carried away and before you know you are left with bleeding figures. Since I traditionally use Uart sanded paper for a lot of my oil paintings I was covered on that ground. Now for the pastels themselves.
There are a whole range of pastels when you start to shop. Some of the famous brands include Unison, Sennelier, Rembrant, Mongyo, Schmincke and so on. Keep in mind just like with mediums such as acrylics, oils and so on this medium relies on layering. Therefore one needs to put down the hard pastels first before you move on to the softer ones. For my work I use conte crayons and charcoal for the initial sketching, Rembrant pastels are my mediums and I selected Mungyo artists soft handmade pastels for my softs. I chose Mungyo based on several reviews stating that these have tremendous quality come close the Unison (widely regarded as the best pastels) but on a budget. Being new to the medium I did not want to spend a fortune but I also did not want to get cheaper quality run of the mill $20 box of pastels. I learn this lesson the hard way with oil pastels. In the picture you can see the Conte crayons and Rembrant pastels. 

Last year, May 2013, I had a chance to exhibit my paintings at the Wanderlust Brewing Co. The brewery is a fantastic place to hand out with an exquisite collection of craft beers and make for a great venue to exhibit art. Nathan the owner and brewmaster at Wanderlust had also taken the time to come up with a poster for the friday art walk featuring me and a fellow artist. ntroducing us. Just FYI I am Kumar in America :).

I had a chance to exhibit some of my paintings during the first friday art walk April 2013 at the flagstaff artists coalition gallery. It was pretty exciting meeting people visiting the art scene and talking to art collectors. Thats me standing in from of two of my paintings, "Splash" and "Rushing by".  I hope to plan and exhibit more of my art this year !

Here is my next piece, Lady in the city. I am now getting color into my cubist palette. Of course for this work I chose a challenging medium. Charcoal and oil pastels is like painting with the wrong side of a brush. Everything sticks to your hand and color goes everywhere. It becomes a challenge to avoid contamination. This is again a 9" x 12" piece done on charcoal paper. 

Madames is my new cubist painting playing with the perspectives of a woman. This is a 9" x 12" charcoal painting done on acid free charcoal paper. Enjoy and all comments are welcome. 

Cubism the art form pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso is something that has fascinated me since I was introduced to it. I love this art form and it is one that transformed the art landscape. Naturally it was something that I had to play around with. I am right now only working with charcoal pencil on paper to execute my cubist vision. I want to take my time before I transition to color. So I will be painting black and white paintings for a while. The apple was a simple painting to start with. 

But I wanted to paint the next one "Sitting on the floor" for a while and figured cubist painting would be a great way to capture the image. Hope you all enjoy this....looks like I am stuck in this zone for a bit. These are all 9" x 12" paintings done with charcoal on acid free charcoal paper. 

Hi Everyone, as many of you may have noticed I have been updating content onto the store starting with my oil pastels. I am now starting to add in the acrylics which naturally start at a significantly lower price point (due to a smaller size and no framing) and is sold and shipped as is without framing. I am guessing most of you would like to take care of the framing at your end. 
I have been asked if the oil pastels can be sold without the frames. While it probably could be shipped so if done very delicately, it would become a significanct hassle for you the customer. The reason for this is the following, oil pastels never dries and is done on art sand paper. Even after years you can smudge the painting just by touching the surface. For this purpose I have each painting carefully framed after consulting with professional framers. I make sure to use all acid free material to ensure that the used framing supplies do not impact the painting and all paintings are framed under UV protected anti glare glass. At most angle you wouldn't even notice the glass. It also has a dust cover at the back to ensure no dust enters the framed region. Naturally all this adds approximately $170 to the painting. If you don't care about an original, I will soon have prints of the originals so thanks for your patience until that happens. I felt I had to convey the purpose behind the framing on the oil pastel paintings because most people are not aware about how to handle this medium 


Interesting fact: Last year I visited the Phoenix art museum and they had a "pastel" portrait there. Regular pastels are more like chalk almost pure color pigment and binder, oil pastels (the one I use) are a little stickier from the wax and not as delicate as pastels. At the museum they said the pastels are so delicate that every time they try to move it some of it flakes off the painting. Therefore around 50 years ago they fixed the place for that painting and it has never been moved since. Don't worry though, my oil pastel work is a lot sturdier and tools such as fixatives and so on have evolve that I use on my art work. If you do have any questions along these lines feel free to ask me. It help me be deeply engage with my art work and history. 

Granted the movie of this name was terrible but thats not what I want to talk about. Since my website launched I have been frantically updating it, working on tweaks, changes and additions. Today there are two new tabs the first is "Story book" talks about what inspired each painting. The second is the "Store" yay !. I now have a store on Etsy where one can purchase the originals. I am still working on the prints so they will soon be listed soon. Until then I hope you will all enjoy the updates and thanks for your support. 

Hi followers, thank you all for your overwhelming support and suggestions for my new website. My blog that was originally on blogger has also now permanently moved to this webspace and that includes all the earlier posts. I am extremely excited about this move. Please feel free to comment and share you views as always. Thanks !!!