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“Concert at North Hills”- A live event painting by Tesh Parekh

Concert at North Hills. 13×19. Watercolor on Saunder’s Waterford 140 lb Rough paper. Painted live.

I had dreaded about making this painting! I frequently paint live at weddings & events, however, what worried me here was the complexity! I painted this as a part of North Hills plein air competition. The competition has now been open for two months. And for me, it has come down to almost last two days to get couple of paintings done. I hope to do an oil painting as well.

I had done three paintings last year, for the same competition. One painting had even won top prize in one of the categories (it was a rarity, considering that it was a watercolor!). Today, while scouting for a painting location, I met James Park. James, who is a General Manager at Mura Restaurant, had purchased one of my paintings last year. He shared a wonderful story related to my painting! Last year I had painted fountains. This year, I wanted to paint something different that would capture what goes on at North Hills. My original plan was to go out and work on couple of paintings for a week. North Hills competition is different from other competitions in that, you can paint anytime and as many times during the competition. This can potentially allow you to refine your paintings (or cheat, if you are into that sort of thing!). However, I had many other obligations which kept me from my lofty ideals. In fact, the title of this post should have been “life comes at you fast, paint faster”!

This was my first time at the Thursday evening concert. It was packed! Let me just say that people were having a good time! I had many folks who stopped by to admire my work (thank you, all!). Couple of folks even showed interest in buying it. This was not an easy painting for couple of reasons. First, the scene in front of me was really complicated. I liked the view from the other side, but, I did not like the composition that way. The light was also fading quickly. It took me around two hours to paint it and I enjoyed the experience.

I used Holbein paints with mostly subdued palette. There are no strong warm colors.

I am still working on a commissioned family oil portrait and also hope to finish couple of oil paintings for competitions. In next couple of days. Wish me luck!

– Tesh Parekh

www.teshparekh.com

919-622-5399

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