Flash of Blue

 This was an experiment… hopefully will grow into something more in a later attempt..

Our roots in Gods own country

All oils..the Elephant and the Bus paintings are now some years old. Last year, I painted the Kathakali with vibrant colors and love how it pops out! The house by the backwaters is the latest from last week. Have more inspirations to be worked on... like the ubiquitous auto rickshaw, a Kerala temple architecture.. and some more.

The idyllic greenery of Kerala draws me and enthralls me in it's magic.

 

The olive tree

If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them,” wrote Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, “Their oil would become tears.”

An Olive tree is a symbol of friendship and reconciliation, cleansing and healing, light, victory and above all a sign of peace! it is treated with reverence as it holds spiritual gifts! Then why are they a silent spectator of all the deaths and atrocities in Palestine. 

108 devotees of Bhagavan

 Ramana Thiruthondar

Sathiya my friend composed this magnum opus extolling 108 devotees of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi. Everything aligned .. I quit my job for a self discovery journey and started working on the sketches. The concept is the colors from Him flow through the pages to His devotees… you will see the paint dripping from each sketch. Hopefully a drop falls on us. Reading about each devotee and sketching watercolors was meant to be. Amma asks why I don’t sign my paintings.. I cannot when it is He who paints. See the YouTube link  Ramana Thiruthondar which has poetry, music (sung by Natana and crew) and sketches.

Universal Mother in a Cow

Cow Lakshmy in Bhagavan's ashram is the representation of why we serve a cow as the Universal mother who gives selflesslessly to people. And she loved Bhagavan and He loved her. Thanks to Sathiya and Bharathi for making me attempt these watercolors for their compositions and... find her.

His grace in His gaze..

 

This is a moment of His inspiration. Offered at His feet.

Sharanagathi at His feet

Sathiya's composition was on the glory of Bhagawan's feet..I cannot even do justice in trying to interpret the beauty in Sathiya's tamil. These were 6 watercolor sketch on cold press with camel watercolors while I was in India for a break! 

The lotus blooming is another project for Sathiya and Bharathi.. the bud blooming to its full potential with each verse and finally attaining it's purpose to rest His feet.

 

A balavihar project!

Our Acharya's vision was to make a bookmark and a Flyer for publicity, add to it some creativity and 4 brains that came together on a whatsapp call and brainstormed for a day and magic happened. I played with so many stick figures that is not on this blog but appears on the flyer! This tree was the concept to "Find your roots!" with Gurudev's signature in the roots :) Loved the experimentation!

 

Kerala musings - beauty in simplicity!

These are some paintings I had worked on over past years.. Kerala always has a charm.. the greenery, the rains, the people, the beauty, the simplicity, the memories.. and ofcourse the elephants.

This oil painting is a favorite of mine with the elephant, the mahout, the auto and the trees. This is a take from a photograph. The perspective of the scooter guy waving his hand tickled me.

The oil painting of a KSRTC bus.. we have taken many such buses on our way to our native village Thottuvai during summer vacation! 

The above scene outside a Communist office is in watercolors. Did this one specifically for Vignesh.

I then tried to take a different spin on the elephant with watercolors with a bus in the back trying to overtake. Though watercolors are my current favorite.. I liked my oils better for this subject.

The elephant in the room!

More elephants! As you may see previous posts, elephants is a repetitive theme. I added these elephants recently in my home office. Well, if you believe in the idiom "elephant in the room", trust me, there is no obvious problem to solve.. or nothing to hide and not talk about. Infact plenty to talk about as these paintings are in my zoom as my background when I am on video calls! You may say, I am blowing my trumpet here.. haha!

 

A journey with friends

March 2022 - a strange time when my health was up and down, I got a text from Sathiya and Bharathi about this project. "This is a story which is a gift for our friends.. the story needs this vulnerable baby elephant, the little girl and a sparrow! And yes, by the way, we would like this in a week!"  And the next thing I knew I was doodling some 30 plus sketches for the book.. all line and wash and yes, forgot all about my health issues. Absolutely thrilled to be part of this journey.. my friends and their friends are just the humblest of the humblest and this journey made me humble just by association. The book is published and gifted .. I have a copy and the memories. 

Huevember Challenge

First it was INKtober with friends.. and then Huevember. Huevember as the name itself suggests is a Art challenge for each day of November with hues and we just added the prompts! Most of my work is a word play or picturizing the meaning in how I draw the word. Arranged them like a color wheel to take this picture.

You may have to zoom in to see each of the word.

The prompts are very much Fall/Halloween theme :) I did not do the ones in red.. got lazy (blush!)

1. leaves 2. Sweater 3. Warm drink 4. Spider 5. Apples 6. Bunting 7. Pumpkin 8. Pie 9. Boots 10. Hat 11. Spice 12. FunkySocks 13. Love potion 14. Ghost with mustache 15. Wicked. 16. Moon 17. Brew 18.Candy corn 19. Owl 20. Kitty 21. Fire 22. Scary 23. Warm Dessert 24. Little monster 25. Wreath 26. Vampire 27. Boo 28. Bat 29. Spooky 30. Candy 

Experiments in blues - Macrocosm

Macrocosm.. a concept that is present in many philosophies.. both ancient and modern to a vision of the whole that is made of the parts. Swami Vivekananda says: "The whole of the universe is built upon the same plan as a part of it. So, just as I have a mind there is a cosmic mind. As in the individual, so in the universal. There is the universal gross body; behind that there is a universal fine body; behind that a universal mind; behind that universal intelligence. And all this is in nature, the manifestation of nature, not outside of it".

I decided to build on this concept and paint the gross manifestations of this macrocosm that we see around us. It had to be in blues..it represents the infinite!

The values in the colors help to define the layers and thus the effect of the large numbers. Watercolors are my current favorite and I started with a painting of trees. Then mountains with Acrylics. Followed by a sea in sharpies. And the last one are the clouds with oils.