The Temple

The paint is still wet on this one. I know I will retouch it another 50 times before I am satisfied. But the blog beckons ;)

2 months back, when Ram saw this canvass with a frame on the roadside and a FREE sign on it, he picked it for me. I have never, ever, honestly, in no means been so ambitious - I would not have ventured out to buy a canvass of that proportion - let alone pay a huge price (pun intended!) for it. The original on it were some flowers which I heartlessly painted over with Gesso. I wanted to paint a temple! When I called my brother and casually mentioned how I was defacing the original which some artist must have spent time and love over it :( he even suggested that the original may be priceless and I am hiding it for future to discover it - reminded him of some movie/book! Anyways, I stuck to my original inspiration of painting a temple on it. I must admit that over the next 2 weeks when I just walked past the whitened canvass, I felt overwhelmed and daunted by the task.

In a whim, I decided to follow a suggestion from a friend and tried a variation in the skies, dividing into 3 stark colors. I have mixed emotions about the result. The temple is the Madurai Meenakshi temple - with one Gopuram and the temple pond. I have hesitation in even saying so as I may have made gazillion mistakes in copying the beautiful architecture and layout. So with due humility, I present you "The Temple".

Phase of Faces

I get into phases and do a series of sketches on a specific topic - like the elephants, ships, landscape and now currently saints. There was once I did a series of Faces in pencils, some of which are in this blog. A Face well drawn for me is half the battle won - if I get that right, the rest is smooth. The entire mood of the painting is captured in the face...

Horses have always been a passion since my days with Louis L'amour books :) This pencil sketch I did a year back has the details of the veins and the straps. Turned out rather well.


This experiment with a Kathakali face which is usually colorful - the greens and the golds, as per tradition was reasonably good in black and white!


The tiger face is my favorite - the pencils have faded, but note the mean look!

Another one of my favorite is Buddha's face which I will upload once I get a decent picture of it :) I hope to become a better photographer in the course of this blog ;)

Appa's paintings and sketches

Can you imagine how it is to grow up - watching and admiring your parent excel in something you dearly wish to also accomplish...For me, I loved having Appa as my role model and he encouraged me all along! My father has done them all - be it a painting on a porcelain pot, or a mural on the wall, or pencil sketches, or a etching, or a clay scuplture or quick paintings on greeting cards or a touch to my biology drawing.

(The painting on the right adorns the walls in our Coimbatore home.. the lady with the wet clothes clinging to her body as she ties her hair. Many have asked Appa why she did not turn around-uh-hum..)

(The coconut tree is part of the large mural in our living room which catches the eye when you enter our home.. Appa drew this along with the beaches and water rushing to the shore.. I leave it to you to imagine it!)

When he talks with nostalgia about his childhood, it is amazing to see his passion - in those days he has made use of all means - including the backside of calendars, or of tickets. He loved to do sketches with pencils and pens - esp Damsels :) that may have caught his eye (The pencil sketch on the right is signed with his name and date of 1957 - that is over 50 years back.)

I have some of his paintings and drawings which I preserve as the treasure. Sadly these days, he does not touch his pencil or paints inspite of our pleas.