Color of Life

"A picture is not thought out and settled beforehand. While it is being done, it changes as one's thoughts change. And when it is finished, it still goes on changing, according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it. A picture lives a life like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed on us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it. " - Picasso

A stainless-steel plate with ripe bitter-gourd busting with seeds sunning on my deck last summer was the inspiration for this painting. Does it matter?

Color of Life watercolor 9x12"

To Life!

As this photograph shows, Boston this past week was a reminder how life itself is mix of old and new. Blooming flowers were shaded by just budding  bare trees. Cool evenings reminded us of the traces of winter still lingering. I walked everywhere, even sketched a bit, soaked in the beauty of spring and also reconnected with a couple of friends.  It was somehow fitting that the one play we watched   'The Buddha, In His Own words'  conceived and brilliantly performed as a one man show by Evan Brenner spoke of  change as the only constant and the impermanence of everything. 

When we returned home two days ago, for about half an hour I was frantic looking for my house keys, imagining them to be left behind somewhere in Boston! Fortunately they were buried deep in my suitcase while I and searched for them in my purse.  Today I stumbled upon a wonderful story in New York Times (via charityfocus.org) about a couple who found a camera while traveling in Scotland and with online tools and cyber sleuthing found its rightful owners. Its really heartwarming to know that good samaritans are sill around! To Life! 

Art, Beauty and Popularity

I had heard the comment that painting pretty things especially flowers in watercolor is not 'high' art. And yesterday as I was reading the obituary of Andrew Wyeth in New York Times I was blindsided with this statement : "Because of his popularity, a bad sign to many art world insiders, Wyeth came to represent middle-class values and ideals that modernism claimed to reject, so that arguments about his work extended beyond painting to societal spilts along class, geographical and educational lines. " Huh ? All I know is that art has remained significant throughout human history in various forms and will continue to do so.

Tulips watercolor 10" x 10"