Friendship Blooms

Floral friendship Cards  watercolor By Meera Rao 

I painted these cards back in January during my trip to India/London. They were for my friends whose almost lifelong association has been a bright spot in my life. All four of us met and spent the day together once again in person after almost fifty years. These flowers were all in bloom in the garden in Bengaluru. I feel a part of me is always in my paintings and it felt just right to paint these for my friends as a token of my appreciation. 

 

The past few months, though sketching regularly, I have been remiss about  posting on my blog. The trip changed my routine and getting back to it is something I need to work on! I do post often on Instagram @artbymeera.  But I like posting on my blog as it makes me write down my thoughts.

Oleander watercolor by Meera Rao

Fuchsia watercolor by Meera Rao

Gazania watercolor by Meera Rao 

Winter Gift

Sugar Snap Pea Flower  Pen and color pencil by Meera Rao

Flowers like winter camellias that stay blooming through December and January, Johnny jump-ups, pansies,  and a few confused stray azaleas (global climate warming?) brought color to our yard this winter.  In the vegetable patch,  this was one of the first times my husband tried growing winter sugar snap peas and a few flowers bloomed on the plant ! The sight of  blue tinged delicate flowers and the curly tendrils meant pulling out my sketch book :) 

Unrealistic Desire

Wilting Daffodil  Photography by Meera Rao 

Wilting flowers do not cause suffering;

It is the unrealistic desire 

that flowers not wilt

that causes suffering

~Thich Nhat Hahn~

Feast for the Senses

2013 India Sketch Journal  July 9 By Meera Rao 

African Tulip tree or Nandini is probably the most well represented of any image in my journals during my stay in India- the only flower or subject that I sketched more than once.  I have sketched the tree, the flower, the seed pods, and birds sitting on it enjoying its nectar! I read that nectar as well as the water that pools in the flower cup is a favorite of many birds - their refreshing tea? 

2013 India Sketch Journal  July 10 By Meera Rao 

In an effort to cut down on my coffee drinking, and reducing milk consumption, I have been enjoying 'tulsi' tea -- hot and cold.  Now that I am back in my home in USA, I use fresh tulsi leaves from the garden to make my tea and love the flavor and aroma.  Of course it was the perfect beverage to sip these past ten days as I nursed the bad cold, cough and fever - gift of the long airplane journey! I will continue to blog the rest of the sketches from my journal slowly but surely. 

2013 India Sketch Journal page 17 by Meera Rao

When I Gaze at Orchids

  Orchids watercolor on Yupo 8"x8" by Meera Rao 

Even though the world is filled with 

confusion 

When I gaze at one orchid

I can forget 

all my problems. 

~ 

Song Sunam

The Orchid flowers blooming on the plant on my coffee table give a sense of floating in the air as they  hang tall on a long stem! They come up to my eye-level (I am not that tall !) and I feel like they are  watching my every move! Painting them on yupo was delicious fun but it took me forever to correct the colors in the photo and make them match my painting! The colors and details are much more subtle, vibrant and delicate in the painting - some day I hope there won't be such a steep learning curve with using the camera and computer.  But today's achievement is that I learned how to work with layers in Photoshop.  I hope I will remember how the next time I want to use it! Tomorrow I should spend as much time in the studio painting!

A Riot of Colors

India Art Journal sept 28-Oct 1 by Meera Rao 

The riot of colors at every turn is something that can only be experienced and I felt compelled to record them in my sketch book! 

India art Journal Sept 28 2012 by Meera Rao

People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing is as eternal as the dishes! 

~Margaret Mahy~

The beauty of stainless steel pots, pans, plates and utensils gleaming in the sunlight as they are drying on an old orange rack  by the sink in the kitchen balcony more than makes up for the chore of washing the dishes. Most days I quite agreed with Margaret Mahy's great quote wholeheartedly! 

India Art Journal Sept 29 2012 by Meera Rao

When the flaming orange African Tulip tree right by my bedroom windows was in full bloom, I spent hours watching the little Mynah birds hopping from flower to flower to sip the nectar. They danced about the flowers so delicately that the flowers barely moved or registered the bird's weight or intrusion.  It was funny to see the bird's beak, head and neck disappear into the flower with only the tail end poking up and out! I noticed that after a couple of days they moved away to other African tulip trees in search of fresh nectar :). The Mynahs usually were active in the early morning hours as the flowers opened, and I loved to wake up listening to them, the parrots (Check below for sketch from Aug 1), the Koyal(nightingale) and few other kinds chirp and tweet and sing merrily. 

India Art Journal Sept 30 2012 by Meera Rao 

This blue building with its sagging but still classic red tile roof, interesting door, an old orange and white poster remnants peeling off its wall, always had a bicycle leaning against it.  Who can resist such a scene? The four months I was in India was supposed to be peak of monsoon season - but unfortunately, the rains were very late even though the sky was mostly overcast. I was able to walk about, do my marketing and errands  without getting drenched but missed seeing the play of light and shadows all around. 

India Art journal oct 1 2012 by Meera Rao

The gorgeous blossoms are 'mussaenda' - only the actual flower is tiny and yellow and the 'sepals' are bright pink or sometimes white.  

Below are once again four sketches from my earlier post A Slice of life  enjoying individual attention! 

India Art Journal July 30 2012 by Meera Rao 

 India Art Journal July 31 2012 by Meera Rao 

 India Art Journal Aug 1 2012 by Meera Rao 

 India Art Journal Aug2  2012 by Meera Rao 

Everyday Pleasures

India Art Journal Sept 1 by Meera Rao

 

Here is another 'newspaper reader' that I came accross early morning sitting in front of  yet to open row of stores.  As noted in the earlier post  I am fascinated by the number of people reading the daily paper in all different places and postures!  







India Art Journal Aug 31 by Meera Rao

 

No part of mini sweet pumpkin goes to waste! The inner meat is cubed, cooked into tasty sambar or some kind of curry, the skin cooked and ground to paste with coconut gratings into a delicious chutny and the seeds are roasted and happpily munched on!!!

 

The sketches below are once again from the first few pages of my journal which I didn't post individually.  The red acacia flowers were abundant in early july but now I see the yellow variety blooming all along the roads.  I read that the use of the flowers in paints, perfume and medicine dates back centuries.  Please check my post A blessing a Day for more on the these two sketches.

 

India Art journal July 4 by Meera Rao 

India Art Journal July 5 2012 By Meera Rao

 

I finished my 100th daily sketch on Oct 5 but am really behind in posting them - hoping to catch up in a few weeks! I am totally thrilled that I have managed to sketch each day during my stay here despite the hectic schedule and hope to keep up untill I head back home end of this month. Please do leave a comment let me know what you think of my efforts. 

Play of Light

Play of light  digital photography by Meera Rao 

Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.

Publilius Syrus

Miracle of Life

digital photography by Meera Rao 

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

– Buddha

Art is a Verb

Memories of a bloom 3 watercolor on Yupo 7x5"by Meera Rao 

Memories of a bloom 2 watercolor on Yupo 5x7" by Meera Rao

Memories of a Bloom  watercolor on Yupo  7x5" by Meera Rao

Three paintings so far with the theme: 'Memories of a Bloom.'  I posted all three here just to see how they look as a group. It felt strange to paint #3 just as fresh spring blooms were popping up in the yard! Memories of a Bloom  and Memories of a Bloom2 were painted earlier. Yupo as I have mentioned so many times before, is a great medium to play with to see how to work out compositions, color and values without much hesitation - it is so easy to wipe off part or all of the painting and start over when things don't quite work out!  And as I rework my paintings I see that there is much truth in the quote from one of my favorite books - Art and Fear - Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland : “To the critic, art is a noun. To the artist, art is a verb.”  

As promised in an earlier post, it is time to tag blogs for the Liebester Award which Aparna from Warli Soul generously passed on to me. Liebster is German for dearest, beloved or favorite. This award is bestowed on blogs with less than 200 followers but deserve more attention :) Please check out these wonderful artists! : 

Rajeev Mohan's Spalsh of Color  

Lisa Graham's Lisa Graham Art

Kathy Staicer at Katsart

Fascinatingly Beautiful

Orchid  watercolor 5x3" 

As I did a quick sketch of the orchid a few days ago using my water brush pen and sketch kit of limited paints, I vaguely remembered that the orchid varieties in number are almost double that of bird species. I went surfing to see if my recollection was right. 

My memory had served me well and  I also discovered that at 25,000+ species, there are four times more varieties of orchids as that of mammals!  More interesting was that 'the name comes from the Greek ὄρχις (órkhis), literally meaning "testicle", because of the shape of the root.'!  Greeks also thought if would-be fathers ate large new orchid tubers their child would be male and if mothers ate small tubers, the child would be female :)  The flavoring vanilla comes from one genus of Orchid -vanilla(of course). The Aztecs believed vanilla mixed with chocolate gave them great strength. In China however, orchids are a key ingredient in medicines for treating coughs and lung-related illnesses. It is also quite fascinating to read about pollination, propagation and seed production in orchids. Growing up in tropical India, I knew them as beautiful and colorful epiphytes and was fascinated how they grew on trees!  

I have a l wide collection of photos as well as few sketches of orchids and I hope to paint some larger varied flowers soon!

Remembrance, The Lasting Perfume

Memories of a bloom 2 watercolor on Yupo 5x7"

Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume.  ~Jean de Boufflers

I saw these stalks with dried out flower pods, petals, leaves still attached while on a walk couple of years ago in Colorado.  This painting is the second in the series capturing the memories of that cold crisp morning. I used the same techniques in this painting as in the earlier one.  My plan is to  change or add  one color to each of the painting to give each painting its uniqueness as well as making it a part of the series. They are small paintings but take time to complete since each layer has to dry completely before I lay the next one. You may check out the first painting here. 

Talking about memories I recently came across an article highlighting the fact that memories are not fixed but flexible and can be manipulated very easily: "....memories are surprisingly vulnerable and highly dynamic. In the lab they can be flicked on or dimmed with a simple dose of drugs. “For a hundred years, people thought memory was wired into the brain,” Nader says. “Instead, we find it can be rewired—you can add false information to it, make it stronger, make it weaker, and possibly even make it disappear.” Nader and Brunet are not the only ones to make this observation. One of the scietinsts, Nader further wonders:  "What actually happens when we recall the past? Does the very act of remembering undo what happened? Does a memory have to go through the consolidation process again? " 

A little further the article points out a fascinating point: "While neuroscientists were skeptical of Nader’s findings, cognitive scientists were immediately fascinated that memory might be constantly revamped. It certainly seemed to explain their observations: The home run you hit in Little League? Your first kiss? As you replay these memories, you reawaken and reconsolidate them hundreds of times. Each time, you replace the original with a slightly modified version. Eventually you are not really remembering what happened; you are remembering your story about it. “Reconsolidation suggests that when you use a memory, the one you had originally is no longer valid or maybe no longer accessible,” LeDoux says. “If you take it to the extreme, your memory is only as good as your last memory. The fewer times you use it, the more pristine it is. The more you use it, the more you change it.” We’ve all had the experience of repeating a dramatic story so many times that the events seem dead, as if they came from a novel rather than real life."

So I wonder, how much do I change my memory when I sketch and paint things I encounter?   

Patience Is Not Passive

memories of a bloom  watercolor on yupo  7x5.5"

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength. 

~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

I have to fully agree with that quote! The little painting on Yupo took a couple of days and lots of determined patience on my part as I layered paint and waited; used a tooth brush to splatter some paint and waited;  dabbed with a wet tissue and waited; added paint in one section and took away paint in another. And repeated the process a few times!  I think finally I see the little plant in the sunshine with dried twigs and memories of a lush little field around it. 

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  :) 

Spectacular Images

A Day In the Life..Full of Surprises  page11 color pencils

I am waiting for The Art House Co Op to finish revamping their website and for my project A Day in the Life -in Blue Jeans With Gold Embroidery  to be added to their digital library. I am also hoping their scanned online versions are better than mine :).  

Even as I am pleased to have completed writing and illustrating  a small book for the Fiction Project, I am fascinated by what I read and see on their site about how some artists challenged themselves to take their art to new level by changing the paper in the moleskine journals or turning it into an accordion book etc., transforming the materials they were given. I just watched a TED talk by artist Janet Echelman on 'Taking Imagination Seriously.' I am in awe of her creativity and drive to pursue her unbelievably big imagination! I also really like how she combines science and art in her work. Having just returned from Chicago last month, where Anish Kapoor has his sculpture the Bean/cloud, I wonder how does one come up with work of art that scale and magnitude that boggles the mind? Is it a different level of risk taking, resourcefulness, determination, tenacity  combined with  the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time and to know to seize upon the opportunity presented?  And does it have to be  really spectacular or it is not imagination taken to the edge?  

Spring Signature

Dandelion digital photography

"It's  not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. "

Henry David Thoreau.

Magical Bloom

Christmas Cactus in Bloom, Digital potography

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope"  wrote Lady Bird Johnson in 'Public Roads:Where Flowers Bloom.'  Last month, as if on cue, soon after christmas, when we were buried in a snow storm,  this plant in our sunroom gave a spectacular display of beautiful deep pink blossoms.  Was nature laughing at her own wonders? No matter -  What a treat for us to see the magic outside as well as indoors! 

What Matters Next

Color Burst watercolor 12x9"

Last thursday was TEDxNASA at Newport News, VA which I attended- thanks to good friends who helped us get the tickets. It was  such an inspiration to hear speaker after speaker with all the wonderful ideas. I came back charged with enthusiasm and motivation.  But, having not painted for close to a month because of trips, Deepavali Celebrations, mundane catch-ups, etc.. I realized my painting muscle memory was missing! This is my third attempt at painting the same flower in one day - the flower that had graced our garden this summer and gave me so much pleasure.  I was frustrated by the difficulty I was having in moving paint. The montval paper I usually enjoy painting on was not behaving in its usual way - I found the paper tearing very easily. I am wondering if it is the temperature fluctuations in my over the garage studio or if I had purchased a bad lot.  At the end of the day I was glad to have persevered and put in a few solid hours of playing with my brushes, paint and water. In a way, the theme of the TEDxNASA - 'What matters Next'  seemed to  resonate- what matters is that I keep painting, sketching and doing art :) 

Summer Special

Sunflower  watercolor on Yupo 11x14"

One more Yupo experimentation. I used only watercolors, brush and misting with water (thats the summer special!) this time for this painting. Blotting with balled up paper towel I had on hand to remove excess water or paint also added some interesting textures and lines.  The center of the flower was fun to create by dropping a color, misting and dropping another color and watch the textures happen .  I was able to lift the color to show the  sunlight streaking between the petals and the flower head. Next time I hope to come up with a   composition that will lend itself even more to the mingling of colors and challenge myself to find ways to make textures :) 

Imaginative Reality

Rose Pencil 9x12"

Yesterday as I was working on the Rose, I heard a discussion on NPR about "Scientists Pinpoint Monet's London Balcony." According to the reporter, artist 'Claude Monet spent the winters of 1899, 1900 and 1901 freezing on the balcony of London's Savoy Hotel, painting a famous series of images of Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge. Now, the scientists at Birmingham University have used solar geometry and historical weather data to figure out exactly which balcony Monet was standing on and what time of the day he was likely working.' I chuckled to myself as I followed the conclusions. I am sure if anyone tries to figure things out from my art work they would be in for a surprise because I do take a lot 'artistic license' when I sketch, draw and paint. I change or eliminate things often to match my technical abilities(or rather lack of) and to change the composition to suit my taste. And I started wondering how many artists really faithfully follow the original subject (other than for illustration purposes) and how many viewers think an artist is true to the subject's every detail :contour, shadow, value, color etc. ? Should we come to major conclusions about historical facts from an artist's creation or are these just fun exercises - not major theses. Along the same lines, earlier there was this piece on "High Art: Were Boticelli's Venus and Mars Stoned? " The object of discussion here was the identity and effects of a fruit that was in the hand of one of the little satyr in the painting. Click on the highlighted words in the blog and you can hear/read the scoop.

Rose is done using 2, 4 and 6B pencils and some Prismacolor cool greys here and there in the background leaves. It was an exercise in values I came up with. I had taken color digital picture of the rose from our garden. Then using the photo-software changed the color to black & white and played with the settings for light and shadows. I then printed it out for sketching using grids. The final piece is an composite of all that and my imagination as I simplified the background.