Small Wonders

The close up photographs of the bees and butterflies that I clicked in the past few days got me wondering how and what do they really see in a flower. So I googled and discovered that "The worker bee's eye is a very complex organ with 6,900 facets, known as ommatidia each carrying out separate visual processes. Each one of these acts like an individual eye, and they stand aligned together, rather like straws in a bucket. Each one ends in a small convex, transparent lens. These lenses form the outer, glassy and oval-shaped surface of the eye. As well as the two compound eyes on either side of their head, a bee also has three simple eyes atop its head. Its estimated that these latter three are used to measure the strength of the light. The bee's eye is superior to the human eye in two respects: it can see ultraviolet light and perceive the plane of light polarization." The miracle of nature - the smaller the creature, the more complex its anatomy and structure!!!

"Just because you can't see something doesn't mean its not there" -So started an inspirational TED talk by Willard Wigan who creates art so elaborate, so tiny and so unique that they are mounted on pin heads or the eye of a needle and you have to see them through a microscope. Check his amazing video here as he explains that since his sculpture is so small he has to work between his heartbeats!

Up-close and Personal color pencils on 11x14" on hot press paper.

Invocation by Design

This week it was my turn with the 'painted prayers.' I made simple and small 'rangoli' for friends who are getting ready for pooja celebrations. The first photograph shows three made on plates using different lentils/dals etc. The other two are on wooden boards. I roughly sketched the designs with a erasable marker on the plates. My friend Sudha helped me fill in with the grains and lentils. The designs on the wooden boards were done the traditional way using dots to plot out and then painted with white acrylic (the middle two) and chalk (last one). The links for my other posts on the age old custom of rangoli, mandala and explanations can be reached by clicking on the title of this post.

Traditionally, Rangolis are created in color or with just white rice powder as invocations to deities for protection and blessings. The rice powder also stops the ants etc by the door too! They vary in designs, form and style from region to region. They are painted daily or on special occasions by the alters, by the front door or gate, or anyplace a ceremony is to be held. Stephen H. Huyler's books Painted Prayers: Women's Art in Village India and Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion are good references on rangoli. I embroidered a rangoli to hang in my living room when we first purchased our house - my way of having a rangoli in the house all the time :). I feel blessed to be a part of the sacred ritual that brings balance to the daily existence.

Flying Colors

This painting is an experiment I tried last week. As I was rearranging my art papers and paints, I came across a sheet of landscape painting where I had been experimenting with pouring the paints a couple of years ago. I remember well that I was trying a lake scene and was no way close to getting it right! I never like to throw away anything and visit the stack of 'unfinished' paintings when I want to just play around.

As I stood staring at it I realized the white patch in the paper would work well as the beak of this toucan -photographed by Roy Taft in Honduras and on the cover of march april issue of Audubon magazine I was getting ready to recycle. I had some acrylic paints I wanted to try and this seemed like a good way to use it on top of the watercolors. I embellished the background from the original painting adding leaves and branches and used watercolors, acrylics and color pencils to paint the toucan. I always use my own photographs and sketches but decided to do this exercise as an experiment in working out problems in a painting. In the end, yellow is the only acrylic paint I used -it covered the blue of the lake from the watercolors and helped define the feathers on the toucan's body. I really enjoyed converting the old painting and gained new confidence in experimenting and not giving up. And, some day I would like to visit Honduras and see the wild flying colors!

Wild colors mixed media 11x 15"

Painting A Prayer

To witness the concentration, reverence and the skill with which the Buddhist monks construct a Mandala is a mystical experience. For the past ten years, every summer, we have had the privilege of looking into the Tibetan Buddhism and culture as the Monks spend a week paint and then ritually deconstruct a mandala. 'Rangoli' from India, Buddhist Mandala, Native American sand paintings all speak of yearning of the soul for enlightenment and I feel, are really painted prayers. Mandala Meditation is one of my attempts to capture that spiritual language. I originally posted this as one of the paintings in a slide show of my paintings last November, but decided this week, in honor of the Monks who are back in town, to post it by itself. You may check my other posts and paintings on this topic here. I am looking forward to watching the prayers unfold this week all over again.

Mandala Meditation, color pencils 11x14"

Happiness

Over the years, I always admired the photos I saw in National Geographic and other nature magazines. Yesterday, when I managed to capture this bee in our garden I was ecstatic, to say the least! I am so very happy to have been at the right place, at the right time with the right equipment.

Happiness digital Photography.

Butterfly Kiss

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever - Carl Sagan

I watched this butterfly less than an hour ago kissing flowers right outside my kitchen window and shot this picture through the glass pane since I didn't want to disturb its morning dance. I love these butterflies even as they lay eggs on my favorite dill and parsley plants in the herb patch and the resulting caterpillars get good and fat as they gorge on them!!! I am in awe as I witness the cycle of change.

Butterfly Kiss Digital photography

Mystical Dance

Daylight, full of small dancing particles

and the one great turning, our souls

are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.

Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?

- Rumi

The Dervishes, followers of the Melvana Rumi, a 13th century mystic, Sufi poet and philosopher perform a 'Sema' ceremony where they whirl and dance (check this video for a glimpse of the ceremony) as they aim towards spiritual perfection. The whirling dance and accompanying Sufi music is quite mesmerizing and transfixes everyone in the vicinity. All over Turkey, there are performances of whirling dervishes most evenings for the tourists - done very respectfully. The ceremony ends with a quote from Quran: "Unto God belong the East and the West, and wither over ye turn, you are faced with Him. He is All-Embracing, All-Knowing"

Whirling Dervishes color pencils 12x9"

Where the East and West Meet

Merhaba! We just returned from a week long trip to Turkey - spending the bulk of our vacation in Istanbul, the city of two continents. The minarets and the domes telegraph the exotic and the excitement that is buzzing just beneath the skyline. The digital photograph above is of the view from our hotel, taken at sunset the day we landed. Over the week, we soaked in the long history, the amazing architectural splendors, the vibrant culture and the beauty of the place. We spent the bulk of our time in the 'Old Istanbul' a UNESCO designated World Heritage site packed with so many layers of wonderful things that we barely scratched the surface. A copy of Lonely Planet Turkey and Noble Prize winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul -Memories of a City helped me get better acquainted with the place.

View of Blue Mosque digital photography

Color More than Skin Deep

I recently read two very interesting articles in 'Science Daily' about colors in bird feathers. According to Yale university researchers 'some of the brightest colors in nature are created by tiny nanostructures with a structure similar to beer foam or a sponge.' One of the paper's authors also explained that better plumage meant better mate :) In the second article " Birds: Feather color more than skin deep" a team from Spain reported on how the red feathers get their color: " the red carotenoids that give the common crossbill its red coloration are produced in the liver, not the skin, as previously thought " Even though I don't need to know these facts at all, I appreciate nature's ingenuity as I try to reproduce on paper the beauty of the birds, the flowers and other wonders.

In "tourist attraction" done in watercolors (15x12"), I tried wet on wet for textures and color variations and changes. I choose some colors from references and others from my imagination. The colorful birds and the flower needed the dark background to shine and that only came about after many days of pondering! My apologies for the reflection in the photograph - I didn't notice it until I posted it on the blog.

No direction But Beauty

Today's 'Writer's Almanac' listed among the day's birthdays Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda and Thoreau. I love their writings. When I was photographing this painting this morning, that bit of information I had read earlier triggered the memory of a poem 'Water' by Nerudo. Below are the last few lines from it :

Water is different,

has no direction but beauty,

runs through all dreams of color,

Takes bright lessons

from the rock

and in those occupations work out

the unbroken duties of the foam.

I painted "Golden Beach" (watercolor, 9x12") on Fredrix pre-stretched watercolor canvas. I ordered the canvas from Cheap Joe's. It is a 100% cotton artist canvas already coated with gesso for water-based paints. I found it a bit difficult to work on that surface even though or may be because it was very easy to take the paint off. I tried the canvas to see if I could get away from framing expenses but I think the painting still needs to be sealed since I found the watercolor paints on it comes off too easily when it is not sealed or under glass. I have not tried any spray sealants yet as I don't feel confident about spraying it evenly without any pooling or dripping since that would defeat the purpose! So, it is waiting to be resolved and I welcome any advice or suggestions :)