We had wandered into Amma's ashram in San Ramon. Amma was not in town but we decided to stroll around the ashram.. the prayer hall that echoed with our footsteps, the rose garden that was filled with offerings of blooms, the dinner hall which was large and vacant, but sound of the devotees ringing in my mind as they would have thronged this same place when Amma would have been there. A walk further into the woods and the eyes caught a dash of white. Curiosity dragged the feet and the further we walked, it was almost ethereal - 2 swans in the lake surrounded by thick foliage. Hinduism does equate swans (
hans) to saints. We missed Amma but we saw
them.
This pencil sketch was a quick 1 hour job the next day though I did have a picture to go by. I dont know if it is my photographic skills but the original looks much better in our study than what is on the blog :)
We decided to paint our bedroom in our first home and Ram gave me my freedom to explore with paints and ideas on 1 wall. We went bold and chose bright palm green for the other 3 walls (pretty shocking for some folks!) and I decided to paint a bamboo forest on my wall. As the twisty bamboos covered the wall, I added a dash of color through birds - 1 on one side and 2 on another. Not to mention that I was teased endlesslessly about making the 3rd bird look the other way while the 2 talked to each other on one side! No prize for guessing who the birds were likened to!
Interestingly some years later, when we were painting the rooms in our new home, I painted a tropical island with 2 elephants on one side with a baby elephant on another. I am very happy with the reflection effect on the water. I hurried through this one - spent totally about 3 hours from start to end and since it was a silhoutte, I did not have any detailing. On retrospect, I feel I should touch the elephants up esp. their backside.
