Eteched in Color

2017 India Japanese Album Sketchbook By Meera Rao

Temple Domes 2017 India Japanese Album Sketchbook By Meera Rao 

Flower Vendor and keeper of chappals 2017 India Japanese Album Sketchbook By Meera Rao 

Mysuru Nandi 2017 India Japanese Album Sketchbook By Meera Rao 

Baggage 2017 India Japanese Album Sketchbook By Meera Rao

Passing Time 2017 India Japanese Album Sketchbook By Meera Rao

The Japanese Style USKbook Sennelier Multimedia 340 (6x4" opening to 6x39") is where I sketched and painted vignettes of my trip to India earlier in February.  I was trying to have a theme but it slipped my mind while sketching the last four panels. It just happened that I used two panels per subject in this book. I sketched them during my trip but applied the watercolors later. 

I started with the view from balcony of my brother's house.  The temple is right across the road. The colorful Temple Domes though complicated were fun to sketch but hard to paint.  I had used two panels to sketch. Unfortunately while painting, the wash settled on the crease between the panel. The paper tore along the fold so I had to resort to clear tape to hold it together.  I also reinforced the back og the crease. It was my first time using this particular brand of sketchbook and the detailed sketch was not the right one to get used to the paper.  But I think I captured the colorful busy-ness of the domes! 

Devotees often buy coconut, flowers and fruits as offering to the Deity when they visit the temples. The vendors line up the entrance to the temple and sell small baskets filled with bananas, fruits and flowers. Many vendors also have a side-business of keeping an eye on devotees' footwares for a fee as visitors are not allowed to wear their shoes and 'chappals'  inside the temple. Just leaving them outside without supervision is not a good idea!

This massive Nandi (bull) carved out of a single stone, is 15' in height and 24' wide. It sits on the way to the Chamundi Temple which is on top of the Chamundi Hill in Mysuru, Karnataka. We were visiting the day before a major festival and there was scaffolding around to assist in decorating the statue with flowers, sandlewood paste and red Kumkum.  

The last four panels depict railway platform scenes. I came across the lady sitting crosslegged surrounded by boxes and bags. Perhaps she was moving to another city!  Passing time while waiting for the train, the man was sitting in the shadow of a huge tree that was left undisturbed in the middle of the platform! The three kids were climbing a pole for a better look at whatever grabbed their interest.  I decided to leave the people unpainted to show that the scene remained the same while the players the changed  :)  

The Japanese Style USKbook Sennelier Multimedia 340 (6x4" opening to 6x39"  India 2017.

Service to the Devotees

For Sale - India Sketch Journal 2014-15 by Meera Rao

Festivals and devotees means an opportunity to sell - from beetle leaves for 'puja' or pleasure to colorful plastic pots, earthenware and sundry household goods galore. The streets are lined up with vendors who anticipate a brisk business around holy days. 

Devotee will get Hungry! India Sketch Journal 2014-15 by Meera Rao

And of course, there has to be freshly made mouthwatering delicacies! A simple stove, couple of gas cylinders, a big black cauldron with hot oil, a pot or two and some utensils are all that was needed for this enterprising cook to open a stall by the footpath! The smell of hot 'pakodas' was inviting and a line was forming even before the first batch was out of the oil! If only I could have scratch and sniff strip right here to complete this vignette!  

Mehendi For the Lady - India Sketch Journal 2014-15 by Meera Rao

A few tubes/cones of 'mehendi' paste and this fellow was in business drawing beautiful elaborate designs on the hands and arms of ladies eager for the stunning look.  I stopped to chat and found out the girl was a muslim bride happy to be taking advantage of the opportunity around a Hindu festival to have 'henna' done couple of days before her marriage ceremony. 

The sketches are done on Moleskine Japanese album (large) in watercolors and pen. 

Making the Mundane Sacred

Blessed Vegetable stand  watercolor India sketch Journal 2014-15 by Meera Rao 

During the festival season in Mysore, every vendor gets into the spirit by decorating their little section of the footpath. On a quiet Sunday morning walk, I spotted this red onion stand with an elaborate huge 'rangoli' design on the road itself next to a tree turned into a shrine. With a lot fewer vehicles and pedestrians, the stand by a 'petrol bunk' (gas station) could not be missed.  The rangoli done in white powder on the road stretched to the median line!

The Flower Vendor and her stall watercolor India sketch Journal 2014-15 by Meera Rao 

This flower vendor was giving her thanks to the goddess in her small stall turned into a shrine decorated long strands of colorful garlands. The blue plastic tarp tent was a good backdrop for the colorful flowers! 

A Streetside Shrine -unfinished  watercolor India sketch Journal 2014-15 by Meera Rao 

This was the beginnings of what turned into a elaborate shrine by one more vendor. It is so much fun to walk around the city checking out all the different ways the vendors try to show their devotion and give thanks to their favorite deity.   

And an important notice and plea for help:

Please sign this petition at Change.org and get wallpart.com off the internet and off the business it is trying to do- sell artwork as posters without the knowledge and permission from the artists. Search your name/website on their webpage and you may be surprised you are being duped and compromised :( I came across the site via another blogger who posted about her works being stolen. I was shaken up to see all the pictures from my blog being offered at $5.59/poster!  

P.S:  I discovered this morning that it is best bot to even go to that site to check -- but be sure to sign the petition! 

http://peterandcompany.tumblr.com/post/124924181627/phishing-warning-avoid-wallpart-at-all-costs

I thought long and hard if I should continue to blog then decided to post but work towards getting wallpart off the internet.  I am hoping to alert other artists, photographers, art enthusiasts, customers and make them aware of this problem. Please spread the word about protecting artists and our work. 

Public Declarations!

Public Declarations  watercolor by Meera Rao

Huge billboards that dwarf people, vehicles, buildings and mighty trees decorated with thousands of tiny light bulbs that glow in the dark occupy major and minor intersections of the roads in the city during the festivals. These particular ones celebrate the Goddess Chamundeshwari, the patron deity of the city of Mysore along with that of Saint Raghavendra Swami.  They provide magnificent backdrops for all the parades and festive atmosphere.  Right around the corner from these bill boards are very very crowded flower, fruit and vegetable markets, where one can find just about anything for the right price :) I took the liberty to clear the streets of people and vehicles in my sketch book leaving only a a few to give an idea of scale and also a better look at the billboards! 

From my 2014-15 India sketchbook/art journal  :Embracing the Ephemeral in watercolors and ink on Moleskine Japanese Album (large)

Sculpting Devotion

Sketchbook India 2014 by Meera Rao panels 5, 6, 7, June 9-10

Tulasi Katte and Ratha (Festival Car)

The trip to Mysore from Bangaluru takes around 3-4 hours. When the taxi driver discovered that I had not seen a couple of beautiful temples along the way and that I did not have to be in Mysore by a certain time, he took it upon himself to make a few stops! (We still made it to Mysore by 3pm!) I took  photographs and during the next few days filled over dozen panels of my sketch book.   

Most every Hindu home, and all temples have a special place for the tulasi (sacred basil) plant. The 'pot' that holds the plant is sometimes very simple and most often very ornate.  

Ratha is a huge chariot used during festivals to take the temple deity on procession pulled manually with ropes.  It is decorated colorfully and towers over all the devotees assembled.  Check out Google images  to get a taste of the festival excitement!  

Sketchbook India 2014 by Meera Rao panels 8, 9, 10, June 12-16

Temple premises

Sketchbook India 2014 by Meera Rao panels 11,12, 13 June 18-19

Outside the temple

Sketchbook India 2014 by Meera Rao panels 14,15,16, June 19-22

Temple gopura, Utsava Murthy

Gopura is a towering gateway, entrance to southern Indian Temple. An architectural wonder, it is ornately carved, sculpted  and decorated with stories from Mythology connected to the main deity. There is also a massive and again beautifully decorated door through which one enters the temple complex. Check here to see images from google search of the gopurams.

The main temple deity  is never moved - so, for festivals special  'Utsava Murthy' are created by sculptors. After divine spirits are invoked in them, they are carried in a procession, either on the Ratha Festival cart, a palanquin or sometimes on the head of one of the priests. 

Sketchbook India 2014 by Meera Rao panels 15-18, June 22-27

garuda utsava murthy and stone wall in the back

Most of the temples are all ancient - several centuries old, some better maintained than others. It is  very common to find beautiful carvings, statues and walls in heaps covered in dirt around the premises.  Its heartening see that the citizens are beginning to understand the value of the art that surrounds them and efforts are being done to restore them.  

I think the beauty of the temples is a testimony to the creativity of the many anonymous  artists that sculpted and built them to make the ephemeral quality of spirituality and devotion more concrete, grand and immediate.  To visit a temple, to be surrounded by the beautiful statues, to take in the burning lamps, sounds of conchs, bells and invocation, the scents of the flowers, incense is a memorable and stirring experience. It did not matter that there were worldly business happening too. I really am awed by the incredible power of art that has lasted centuries! 

A Long Journey

View From Balcony Sketchbook India 2014 June 4-7 by Meera Rao

View From Balcony Sketchbook India 2014 June 6-8 by Meera Rao

"Then India, everyone has his own idea of India"

-Milton Hays.

I have been here in India almost two months and yesterday I did the last sketch in the small Moleskine Japanese accordion style sketchbook.  I have finally figured out (for now!) the quirks of the computer and the programs here and been able to successfully post the first two photos from my sketchhbook :) 

First few sketches in a new book are always tentative in nature as I am learning what will work best. On the opening page (which I forgot to photograph) I tried out color pencils, watercolors and Faber-Castell Pitt basic color  brushpens. I mainly used Prismacolor Verithin color pencils, Prismacolor fine line marker pens and micron pen on these four pages. The hard lead color pencils are good to sketch with but difficult to color and shade on the slick beige Moleskine paper. I may build color with my regular Prismacolor soft pencils once I get back home! The background washes are watercolor (Koi watercolor field kit) and I am yet to master using them on this paper! The accordion style sketchbook gave me freedom to sketch wide and an opportunity to link these different sketches.  The idea was to have continuity though here I may be only partially successful as I don't plan ahead of time and am not sure what my next day's sketch will be! I sketched everyday but often took a couple of days to complete a panel - so it has taken me almost two months to finish 30 panels in the book that opens into one long 5.5" x 105" page  :) 

About the sketches: As the title indicates its the view from second floor balcony. I was excited to see the papaya tree top laden with fruits of various sizes right by the balcony, the collection of little lamps, the electric pole with its wires and a branch of "Kadam" /Adina Corifolia tree sporting a badminton ball like composite flower mass.

Today I will start using the large Moleskine Japanese album sketchbook  (5x8" when folded). It has 48 accordion pages. If anyone reading this has suggestions, constructive criticism and helpful hints on using these sketchbooks please feel free to pass it on in the comments section :)