They Never made it into History Books.

March is 'Women's History Month'  It recognizes and acknowledges amazing accomplishments by women. I decided to post Sarah,  done in color pencils, a portrait of a 'slave' from Colonial times.  Colonial Williamsburg  has actors portraying and reenacting life from that period. I used my photographs as reference and wanted to highlight the spirit of survival and dignity she was exuding.  She is one of the many unsung and unseen heroines of the world.  This year's theme is 'Women taking the lead to save the world.'  Its a tragedy that it is the 21st. century and  women are still treated as slaves in many parts around the world. They bear the brunt of war and violence.  Many never even get a chance to discover and nurture their talents.  Isn't it time we all worked to change that?   

Sarah color pencils 11" x 14"

Promise of Color

Today was a very misty, foggy day. It rained all day and the fog just never cleared. It was a great day to go out and capture the gray world around with my camera. Official first day of spring is only four days away but the plants are  already filled with buds poised to do their thing.  All the promise of color is wrapped tightly in those tiny buds just beyond our sight. I just read an article in the latest Scientific American that we human beings are able to see the full spectrum of colors and hues because of 'trichromacy'. It was a fascinating article on how the color vision in humans evolved.  And it is amazing that I never give a second thought to something that is so unique and special to me as a human!   

Sweet Memory

Bus 26 is painted in watercolors on hot press paper.  I wanted to capture the excitement and adventure of  'the first day of school.'  I have fond memories of that day for both my children and it is especially sweet now since they are both busy adults. Painting this was a sentimental journey for me and I enjoyed it immensely.  

Less is More

I always want to fill the paper with color and details when I paint.  To leave some of the paper untouched and use negative painting is something I have  to deliberately work at.  There are plenty of studies that show that brain is very good at filling in the gaps of information -- but my brain needs to be reminded of that constantly when I am painting. In 'Birds', I experimented using bubble wrap, cardboard for pattern and texture.  I started the painting in one of the classes I was taking but as usual I  had a difficult time finishing it. I didn't know how to transfer the techniques demonstrated over to my painting. Slowly, over the course of a few weeks I defined and darkened a few shapes, and working hard at keeping the color and details to a minimum. I also learned to paint negatively.  Even when it seems illogical, often less is more. 

Birds watercolor 11x14"

Tangled Web

This past week in between sketching and thinking about my next painting, I came across an old half sketched abstract design and for some reason abandoned project. I even had some paint on it. I was looking for a diversion and needed to just play on something that I wasn't too attached to.  I picked up some masking fluid and merrily made abstract lines/designs with it. Once the masking fluid was dry, I started painting and defining a few shapes  here and there with no particular design in mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the process since I didn't have to worry about messing up the painting! After a few hours I decided it was time to stop. So of course, the painting does not have any up/down orientation :). 

As I was painting, I was listening to a program Art and Evolution  on NPR's "On Point".  Host Tom Ashbrook's guest was Denis Dutton, who has written a  book " The Art Instinct, Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution."  It was interesting to listen to Dutton argue that art is what helped humankind evolve from the caves and that art is instinctive. As Ashbrook put it "....cave drawings, natural selection, and Picasso. Mating habits, sexual selection and Pavorotti. Art, he argues, is not sublime. Its intsinct,  from cave to concert hall."  Its something to think about -would we be humans without art? 

Tangled Web watercolor 16 x 13" 

The Surprise Gift

Mother Nature is full of surprises and we were given a gift of a beautiful snow fall couple of days ago.  Snow fall in March is very unusual for our region and it has been a celebration. The newspapers and TV have been showcasing the fun children and adults alike have been having playing in the snow. It has also been so cold that even the somewhat brackish water in the river that flows by our backyard has had a layer of ice on it for the past couple of days.  I am grateful I woke up early today and watched  the sunrise over the frozen waters. The osprey actually was standing on frozen water before it decided to check out the scenery from the pole.

Best Seats

A group of Tibetan Buddhist monks are invited by The Hampton Arts Commission/American Theater to town every August to create a sand Mandala. They start on a monday or tuesday, and  complete  it usually on the following saturday morning. On saturday around noon, to illustrate the Buddhist principle of impermanence of everything, the mandala is then ritually deconstructed, the sand gathered into a container, taken with fanfare in procession to the river where prayers are offered for peace and prosperity as the sand is released into the water.  It usually attracts a good crowd, and there are always many children.  The Monks also set up a table for a 'community mandala' where visitors  use the traditional instrument chakpu and participate in creating a mandala too as the monks continue to work on their intricate creation.  Its a wonderful week filled with cultural and spiritual programs -lectures, ritual dances and entertainment etc.   And I have hundreds of photographs taken over the years documenting their visits.  Since most of the monks are from my home state Karnataka in India, I do visit them often during the week and host a dinner one evening along with two my of my friends.  Its a treat as well as a meditation to watch them patiently and diligently 'paint' delicate, elaborately detailed, colorful mandala.  What serenity and discipline the monks exude as they construct the symbol rich mandala. 

Over the years,  I have been inspired to paint various scenes of mandala creation.  This past week I completed painting the children watching the monks pour the sand into the water. I used a bunch of photographs to sketch this scene. The only thing I really worried about when sketching and composing the scene two months ago was to get the proportions right.  Little did I realize that the scene was full of various textures to tackle! It turned out to be a meditative process for me as I figured out slowly over the past two months to use watercolors to paint hair (three kinds!), cloth, wood, siding, glass, shoe, reflection etc.  If I had been aware of the difficulties I would be facing as I sketched and planned the composition,  I would have never tried to paint it!  I am grateful that I persevered and completed "Best Seats" (20x15")

Passion to Create

Today I spent my afternoon marveling very beautiful, extremely creative and colorful quilts at the "Mid Atlantic Quilt Show" in Hampton. The colors and textures in yarns and fabrics were indeed a feast to the eye and exciting to touch. The talent the quilters showed in selecting the materials and colors, designing the quilts, and the craftsmanship they displayed in sewing the pieces, without a doubt elevates them to status of artists. What I saw today is 'fabric art.' The pieces were truly innovative and labor of love. And the gadgets the vendors were selling were indeed fun to explore!

I have never quilted anything even though I have tackled various, often foolishly ambitious sewing projects over the years! But that was before I started painting. Unfortunately these days I rarely go to the sewing machine other than for repairs :( . The only quilt I have created is in watercolors in 'Welcome' (22x30"). I sketched the horse weather wane at an antique shop during a Dough Walton workshop a few years ago and decided to paint a quilt for the background. The resulting composition I think is whimsical. It was selected as a top piece of the week which made me very happy!

Artistic Vision

Another Place was painted using only three colors -red, blue and yellow - and of course, mixing blue and yellow gave me green. It was an exercise in using limited colors and painting an imaginary subject. Trying to conjure up a painting from my imagination was challenging - and I realized how few details of what I see and experience I commit to my memory. As a visual artist who paints, its crucial for me to able to see and look and look again so I can capture the essence of the subject on paper. Or so I thought until I read today in The New York Times an article 'In Blindness, a Bold New Vision' about the artist Mr.Bramblitt. It is astounding that even though he can neither see his subjects nor the colors on his canvas, rather than giving up painting he has reached new artistic heights. " It wasn't until I lost my sight that I became brave enough to fail." He has adapted to his blindness and has invented new ways of painting and identifying colors and conveying to viewers the shapes and colors he now perceives. The article concludes by mentioning that he may never regain his vision, but that he no longer views his blindness as a handicap. "Life for me now is way more colorful than it ever was."

Cabbage Concerto in Red

Giving a title to a painting is usually not easy for me and mostly I end up with somewhat bland explanatory ones.  When my children were still living at home, I often tried to recruit them  to help me out.  That was sometimes a perilous task - since I was never sure if their suggestions were  tongue-in-cheek! But they did come up with quirky, creative ones.  Cabbage Concerto in Red is done in watercolors and the title was courtesy of my son.  I think all those years of piano lessons didn't go to waste.