Avatar 8.5

Avatar 8.5 was what my brother named this painting. At first I thought it was to do with the characters in the Avatar movie but then I realized it is Krishna (avatar 8) becoming Buddha (avatar 9) Mind-blowing ..I loved the name!! I had to paint the concept of Buddha playing the flute like Krishna but he is Krishna being meditative like Buddha. I worked this in acrylics and it evolved over 2 weeks. I added the lotus for Buddha and debated about adding a peacock feather and did not.. maybe at a later date.

Spot the Buddha

An experiment with my paint brush and acrylic paints as I went with the spotting/dotting with the colors. I found later that ear-buds work better for this :) a little late..

The bright colors just popped up and even without painting the background, I think this worked for a Buddha.

I have found that Buddha and Ganeshas are most forgiving on all art experiments.

And a year just passed.. or did it?

Appa's pencil sketch of himself

Yesterday marked a year since Appa left for his heavenly abode. April 4.

Whether Time is relative or Time is absolute or Time is an illusion.... I look back and think it is 2017 now. where did the time go?? Without going into cosmology, science or spirituality, I can close my eyes and think about him; smile at the fun moments we have shared and know that I am a part of him always. So the clocks can tick, calendars can change, time may fly or halt, I can always remember him.

An interpretation of a Mira Bhajan!

jhUlat rAdhA sanga Giridhar jhulat rAdha sanga

rAdhA is swinging with krishNA during the festival of hOli with carefree abandon!

When I heard Natana sing this bhajan for the first time, my mind was absorbed in this image of Radha swinging by herself! Krishna is implied as He is always with her, in her! So a sketch evolved of her swinging on His flute! As always Rumi fit in so well!

"Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along" - Rumi

abIr gulA kI dhUm macchAyI bhar pickArI rang giridhar
lAl bhayI brndAvan jamunA kE sar cUvat rang giridhar

Filling her syringe with red colored water, she makes a lot of joyous noise and squirts water
everywhere esp. on krishNA and the gOpis play so much with the colored water that yamUnA turns red!!

My imagination soared as He played holi with Radha through the rain! she is drenched in blue (Krishna's color!)  and it turns red as it hits the ground :)

"All my feelings have the color you desire to paint" - Rumi

nAcat tAl adhAr surabar dhimi dhimi bhAje mrdang Giridhar

The cymbals dance as they keep rhythm while melodious music issue from tender lips and the mrdangs play the bOls - dhimi dhimi as krishNA continue to play!

I wanted the thunder and lightening to provide the rhythm for Radha as I took her in a swirl with my pencils and erased the lightening.

"In the rhythm of music, a secret is hidden" - Rumi

mIrA kE prabhu giridhar nAgar caraNa kamal kUdAnga giridhar

Concluding verse: mIrA is amazed at the magnificence of her beloved Giridhar's compassion, the refuge at His lotus like feet!

The sketch of the mountains with His feet as a reflection was an earlier sketch in one of my pensive moments! I just added Radha to it!

"A mountain keeps an echo deep inside. Thats how I hold your voice" - Rumi

My muse my nieces

Pencil Sketches of my nieces at their Arangetrams...
It started with Meera. Meera's poise and beauty has always set her apart. There are many things about her that make me so proud - a vicarious joy in her achievements. 5 years since her Arangetram, today, she is an independent spirit pursuing her dreams in Bryn Mawr.

Her Varanam was on Krishna and that got me thinking. With Krishna in the background, nothing could go wrong! I sketched this as a surprise gift for her.

Then it was our dearest niece Vedika's Arangetram. Her every step, stance, expression is perfect! She dances like a dream! This added to the pressure on working on her sketch!

So I worked on 2 pieces for her, just in case....

Vedika's Varanam was on Lord Shiva. And so Nataraja got her back on one while the other was a close-up to highlight her beauty.

Vedika is very dear to our heart and it is a joy to watch her blossom to a fine young lady in the past couple of years. She will discover more of her inner strengths in her college years!

My most recent sketch was Divya. Divya has time for us, to talk, to let us know about her plans, about her school and make us feel part of her life. Always...

It was Krishna again...and it brought me a smile. And this time, Divya was Krishna. The Lords's feet framed her in the sketch, as He will in her life, as she takes her next step in the world. The Lord will protect this special one.

Krishna will protect my Dad

I feel the need to write this...

The past few days has given me my first-hand experience of my fundamental Hindu belief that our journey on earth is temporary while the divinity inside us is permanent. My father breathed his last, peacefully in his sleep on Monday, April 4 at 8 am. Call it intuition or whatever but my anxiety levels were high since Friday. After concerning reports of my father’s health during that week, I booked tickets to India with the intention of taking him to the hospital myself to oversee his treatment. Nothing prepared me for what I saw when I reached home on Monday afternoon. Nothing.... it was like my heart just plunged into a vacuum.

Or maybe Krishna did give me signs that I did not catch very well. After talking with Dad on the phone on Wednesday and Thursday, my prayer was a sketch of Vasudeva carrying the Lord through the rain and the rising Yamuna. The Lord realizing the pain of His father, puts His tiny feet out to quell the raging waters. KRISHNA, protect my Dad too! 

Since you don’t know him, let me tell you briefly about him, my father, through my eyes. He lived a full active life of 80 years, a principled self-made man, who lived life on his own terms. He left his hometown when he was barely 20, worked on a ship for some years, settled in Doha, established himself and retired voluntarily as the head of the then Sheikh’s travel company. He and my mother raised me and my brother with the same principles and a love that makes us who we are today, his proud children. He would write every penny he spent in his diary and tally them meticulously multiple times and lived with pride without depending on anyone. He was always the first person to help a neighbor, to write to the local newspaper on social issues and no one went empty handed who knocked on our door. He has been my mother’s caregiver for the past 18 years until the last 2 years when he found himself with stage 3 Prostrate Cancer with bone mets. The last 4 months had been particularly difficult with multiple fractures but he did not worry us with his pain and discomfort, always sounding cheerful on the phone. He took care of his personal needs to his last day and even sorted my mother’s medicines, repaired her reading glasses and had his milk, rested his head on the pillow and left knowing that I will be home in a few hours to take care of mother. He left with a dignity that makes my Dad, my Dad.

We have rituals ordained by our scriptures for 13 days which they say is for my father’s soul’s passage but I feel it is more for us, the living, to reflect on life. Relatives and friends rallied around us for those days and whether we are orthodox or not, the customs and Sanskrit chanting have been cathartic. My brother and I made a road trip to my father’s hometown with his ashes as it was his wish that we immerse it in the Arabian Sea. Back to the 5 basic elements. 

Ganesha thanks those helped the cause!

More Zentangles of Ganesha and this time I doodled them as thank yous for those who helped with our 5th year of RFL! This is an addiction now, as I can sit with Sharpies and my sketch book and go on for days. I have more in the works....

Varanasi Ghats

"Benaras" is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together". Mark Twain.

".. crammed perspective of platforms, soaring stairways, sculptured temples, majestic palaces, softening away from the distances and there is movement, motion, human life everywhere and brilliantly costumed - streaming in rainbows up and down the lofty stairways..". Mark Twain

Varanasi is a magical place with a ambiance that Mark Twain describes so well in his words. Well, I finally picked up the guts to paint it with Oil. I wanted to use my palette knife for the entire painting but used it for the sky and the water and brush for the rest!! The painting is very colorful predominantly with cerulean blues, barium oranges and chrome yellows.

Inspired by Keshav

Keshav is an AMAZING artist who I follow on facebook (obviously so does my beloved sister-in-law! as this request came from her to paint a similar Krishna like his!)


Both of these Krishnas are my adaptations from Keshav with a different touch :) One is with watercolor pencils and the second (Egyptian-like Krishna) is with acrylics and sharpies for the zentangle.





If you want to explore more of Keshav's work, please check out:  http://www.kamadenu.blogspot.in/

And the Artist reveals Himself..

"All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea,
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
And I intend to end up there." - Rumi

Ravi made a comment once that Krishna is the sketcher and the sketch and whatever is the outcome is complete and beautiful in itself. That triggered this concept. Felt like exploding when i drew it.

Lost in Krishna with Rumi as companion

"In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art." - Rumi

The moment i read this quote, i knew that one day it will come back to me when i draw Lord Krishna. And then when i sketched Krishna's lotus feet in a bed of flowers, there was a ecstatic feeling when the quote came back to me. Rumi's poetry then started me off on this journey of sketches. It was so amazing how each poem just blended so beautifully with each sketch.







"I once had a thousand desires.But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away" - Rumi

The concept of the Lord's hand alone reaching to take butter from pots of butter was mind boggling. This is by far, my favorite in the series.I had another view.. how jealous the other pots must have felt when He took pot from that specific special pot and not the others!

 "Love calls - everywhere and always.
We're sky bound.
Are you coming?" - Rumi

The flute represents being hollow and empty so that He can play His beautiful music through us. When the sketch of His hands playing the flute was done, i wanted to fill the empty white space around it. i went freehand with paisleys and swirls and went berserk with colors. Like dreams --- drifting.

 "I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home." - Rumi

The peacock feather - a symbol of integrity and beauty showing what we can achieve when we truly endeavor and show our true colors. And end up adorning His head. The colors were enchanting. To think I had 12 color pencils and still looks so colorful!

"You think you are alive
because you breathe air?
Shame on you,
that you are alive in such a limited way.
Don't be without Love,
so you wont feel dead.
Die in Love and stay alive forever." - Rumi

This was a simple fun sketch. His tiny dancing feet trampling our senses which sometimes go haywire without control was a joy to put in paper.

 "This is how I would die
into the Love I have for you:
As pieces of cloud
dissolve in sunlight." - Rumi

With rains pounding outside the windows, i could not but think of His little finger holding the Govardhan mountain protecting the Brijwasis from the great deluge.

"You are not a drop in the ocean.
You are the entire ocean in a drop." - Rumi

Ras lila - the dance that symbolizes the soul's unceasing struggle to break clear of the constraints of the body, to make contact with the supreme reality. And this abstraction is symbolized by the supreme reality personifying and dancing with everyone and everywhere where there is this intense longing for Him. The thought behind the sketch started with Radha's and Krishna's feet.and then the reflection with the multiple Krishnas with Gopis came with a spark.

Taking a break from tangling Ganesha

After 8 days of ZenGaneshas on Facebook and the expectations built around it, i had to force myself to a break. While my creativity was tickled, i was under pressure to come with a fresh idea everyday. Showering and Driving are 2 best times in a day for me to get brainwaves and this idea of Ganesha escaping from a tangle appeared at the latter instance. And so the 9th night after dinner, sat with my sketch book and sharpies and drew him escaping with mooshika and then resting. It could work the other way around that Ganesha is dreaming that he was tangled at some point in time. It is all in perspective.

ZenGaneshas - a New Year resolution!

It has been a long time since I last drew or blogged. It was a dry 2014. While i continued to admire Keshav's daily sketches of Krishna and Abhishek Singh's drawings of Lord Siva on facebook and i asked myself why i cannot do the same. i challenged myself to zentangle Ganesha year-round but after 8 i decided to take a break :) i got a lot of love for these and the comments on facebook have been very encouraging.