Ignorance

Ignorance mixed media 12x15"

The explosion of violence, hate and extremism around the world is very very scary. This piece in a way painted itself. Its beginnings were innocent enough but before long as I was listening to radio news of bombings, terrorist plots and raging wars, I found myself painting dark figures, smoke and a war zone of a city. Apathy is as dangerous as hate. How do we give non-violence a chance? Will we all ever learn to live and let live?

The Seven Links Project

Hanging Fire watercolor 16x12 

Here it is, 'Hanging Fire' selected by my husband as my most beautiful  painting for my Seven Links Project. As mentioned in my previous post,  The Seven Links Project is courtesy of Crystal Cook who tagged me to post seven links in my blog for

Your most beautiful post

Your most popular post

Your most controversial post

Your most helpful post

A post whose success surprised you

A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved

The post you are most proud of

The idea behind the project is "to unite bloggers(from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of the day again"  

I could never settle on any of my paintings as my most beautiful one (being partial to all of them (-: ), so,  I finally asked my husband for his pick.  I agree with him that the peppers in Hanging Fire look gorgeous in their luscious red. Please let me know what you think is my most beautiful painting -- I know that is  a very subjective selection !

Resplendent  Watercolor on Yupo 11x14"

Resplendent on Yupo is definitely my choice for 'your most popular post'  if going by the number of hits it gets every single day.  The blogger picked it as my most popular post for the side bar! This painting gave me confidence to continue my experiments on Yupo paper.

Ignorance mixed media 12x15" 

'The post you are most proudest of '  has to be my mixed media painting  Ignorance.  That particular day I had picked up one of my failed paintings of a street scene of a town in India to see if I could salvage it.  Listening to the news about wars in various parts of the world, I started  a collage  on it from torn pieces of rice paper from another failed calligraphy attempt about "Truth alone triumphs.' I was guided by a photograph from one of the newspapers from couple of months before that had etched in my memory - even today I see clearly in my mind's eye the dark figures in a chaotic city scape with blue smoke from a bomb blast.  I am proud of how I channeled my frustration with the violent world out there, my failed paintings and brought together various mediums and styles to express myself.  I am also proud that my daughter within minutes of my posting the painting e-mailed me to ask me if she could have it!

Collateral Damage  water media 9x12 

'Collateral Damage'  surely qualifies for  the 'your most controversial post'.  I consider it controversial for the artistic liberties I took in painting the  disaster caused by the Gulf oil spill. The scene is from my imagination and I closed that post with the thought :  'My hope is that the message doesn't get swept away in the debate about realistic depiction'.

Sketch of a sculpture, white Prismacolor pencil on black paper

The honor for 'A post whose success surprised you' goes to Negative Drawing  showing the sketch of a sculpture done with white Prismacolor pencil on black paper.  I am pleased that I was successful in sketching the sculpture from Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA  as well as how according to Stats it has become the second most popular post on my blog!

'A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved'  goes to Show-off time :

Bangle Pedlar  color pencils 14x10" 

I wavered between Bangle Pedlar and Mandala Meditation - both color pencil portraits. I settled on Bangle Pedlar  from my second blog post but very first post of a painting  -a portrait in color pencils. I guess it is understandable that I never got any feedback on the painting as my blog was still very new :) The painting hangs in my living room and always elicits a happy reaction from all who see it.

At the Art Institute of Chicago digital Photography

As for the 'most helpful post', I would like to think that all my posts are helpful in some way as I strive to include a link or two or some information that one might find useful or worthy of contemplation :)  I consider  my post on 'Universal Acceptance' most helpful - as my attempt at shining a light on how important it is to accept one and all and find  unity in all our diversity.

Now, I pass the Seven Links Project challenge on to :

Teresa Sheeran Houstan

Padmaja

Heera

Shalini

Cathy

I really enjoyed doing this challenge - wonderful way to go back and see how my blog and my artistic abilities have evolved  :) 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 6

Week 6  Feb 2-8 2020

Is it Tailor bird? Or is it Chestnut tailed starling? Even after spending hours observing, I never really could identify the beautiful bird that darted in and out of the lush bottle brush tree with bright red blooms right outside the balcony in Bengaluru, India. Hanging upside down it enjoyed the snacks it found in the flower. But then “You must not know too much or be too precisely scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, or even vagueness- ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things” said Walt Whitman whose portrait by Naul Ojeda graces the page in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar for 2020. The description says: ‘Ojeda’s watercolor portrait, a testament to Whitman’s appreciation of nature and was likely inspired by Federico Garcia’s 1929 poem Ode to Walt Whitman.’

Snack Time watercolor by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 46

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 46 Nov8-14. 

Deepavali, the Festival of Lights is celebrated in India and by Indian diaspora all over the world.  It is a five day festival around the New Moon day of lunar month of Karthika (October/November) observed by lighting of rows of Deepas/ Diyas/lamps, puja/prayers/worship, exchange of gifts, wearing new clothes, sharing of lots food and sweets, and of course getting together with family and friends. The festival is a celebration of good over evil, knowledge/enlightenment (light) over ignorance(darkness), While the stories behind the celebrations vary from region to region within India, the essence remains the same - cherishing the inner light, hope and restoration. 

It just so happens that I am lucky to have been born on one of the days of Deepavali festival- and in addition to my actual Gregorian calendar birthdate, my family also celebrated it on one particular day during Deepavali. So it is a very special festival for me! I sketched a festive ‘rangoli’ on the page using the age old dot system (this one has 5x5dots scheme) 

Rangoli for Deepavali by Meera Rao 

The photograph in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for that week is of William James Aylward’s American Schooners, Old Harbor Marsellie, 1919 Charcoal and Watercolor on paper. ‘Aylward was one of eight artists commissioned by the U.S.Army to join the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War 1. Having grown up around the docks and shipping of the Great Lakes in Wisconsin, he here adeptly captured American schooners docked in the harbor of Marseille, France.