Poetry of Lines of Shapes

A Day in The Life.... Sketchbook Project page 18 Color pencils 

Our little town still has above ground telephone and electric lines and there are always mourning doves or purple matins etc. sitting on the wires - quite often a conference of them! I love to watch them as they fly away and come back following some private code of their own.  I was very pleased to draw a simple sketch of those birds and incorporate them into my Art House Co-Op Sketchbook-Fiction project narrative.  While working on the project  I really learned the poetry of lines, forms, shapes and colors in sketches. And I realized that to be a true artist I need to follow Irwin Greenberg's advice, " Draw everywhere and all the time. An artist is a sketchbook with a person attached. "   :) 

Different Perspectives

Hanging Beauties  6x4" watercolor

Delicate Beauty  4x4" watercolor

Lately I have been hearing again and again how we should shut off all the technological distractions like cell phones, computers, iPads, television etc and concentrate only creating. But is artistic creativity only confined to the traditional platforms? In today's society, what is the artist's responsibility for showing different perspectives; for using various newer media in creative ways for making a statement; for helping the world learn to empathize?  A TED Talk by Artist Raghava  KK    "Shake Up Your Story" shows off  his children's book idea for iPad. The brilliant creativity he displays  showcases how to expose children to various perspectives on morality, culture, religion etc in a playful, kid-friendly way.  What a wonderful way as an artist to open minds.  

First Light of the Day

Sunrise By The Water Digital Photography

“He who is here in the human being, and he, who is there in the sun, are one and the same.” (sa yas-cayam purushe, yas-chasavaditye, sa ekah).

Taittireeya Upanishad

Summer Dreams

The Day In The Life...sketchbook project page 17 color pencils

My Fiction/sketchbook project  The Day In the Life -In Blue Jeans with gold Embroidery is digitized and online  at the Art House Co-op website :)  I will still slowly put the pages on this blog too but this lets you look/read the whole thing with one click. 

Now, looking at all the scanned pages in one place, I really long for another goal to work towards! These days I find between catching up on housework,  some garden tending, getting the house repaired, repainted and rearranged, my art time has really eroded. I also have a few wonderful new art books that I am thumbing through that have ideas and techniques that I can't wait to try! And then there is the new Adobe Photoshop that I just purchased and waiting to be mastered. I have to find some extra time - any ideas and tips for me? 

Rideable Art

Rideable Art  digital photography Mysore  Aug 2011

Think of bicycle as rideable art that can just about save the world 

-Grant Peterson

Field Experiments

Watermelon and berries  sketching with Aquaflow brush with watercolor tube paint

At the Gate sketches with Aquaflow brush, tube paint, Pilot G-2 pen

Ready to Board  sketch with Aquaflow brush, tube paint, Pilot G-2 pen

I had purchased a Aquaflow waterbrush just before my unexpected  trip to India last month. I made myself a small field box by putting a blob of paint each of cool and warm reds, blues, and greens, aurelion yellow, raw umber, burnt umber into an old small flat Celestial Seasoning Tea box measuring 3"x2"x1/2" . The brush, the box and my sketch book (5x3"), a Pilot G-2 pen were packed into a quart size ziploc bag and fit in my purse neatly. 

I really enjoyed trying out my 'field sketch box kit' at the airports mostly and found it fun. It took some practice to get a feel for the brush which has a store of water --to figure out how much to squeeze as you paint and how to blend the colors!  I also now know to add a sponge or couple of paper towels to the kit. I played around with sketching first and then adding the colors  as well as putting down the colors first and then defining with the pen. Except that by the end of the trip, some of the paints mixed with each other (airplane pressure issue?) and there was a small mess in part of the box, the kit was a successful experiment. 

Fig  Salvia  sketches with Sakura waterbrush Koi watercolor field sketch box

The sketches of the fig and the Salvia was done at home couple of days ago with the Koi Watercolor Field sketch Box and the Sakura waterbrush that came with it.  The field box has 24 mini pans of paint, 2 sponge strips, a mixing tray that fits neatly to the side when opened, and room for the dis-assembled brushpen. The lid can be used as a mini easel for the watercolor paper that I cut fit into the space between the lid and the mixing tray.  I could hold the field box in one one hand and paint with the other, making it a neat field box. The box measures 6"x4"x1" when closed. I am not too happy with the waterbrush that came with as it kept loosing hair and it took me a while to figure out that I had to twist it to the right to loosen it as opposed to turning to left as I instinctively do ! I was afraid I was going to ruin the brush even before I had a chance to paint with it!!!  I am really looking forward to using my field kits regularly and hope all the sketching will make a difference in my studio paintings :) Please let me know how you approach sketching on the go.   

the set ups :)

Messages for Life

A Day In the Life -sketchbook project page 16 color pencils 

Once again, I am given a new perspective on life - life that is exceedingly fragile, unpredictable and where change is the only constant. We were away in India coping with the untimely, unexpected loss of my  husband's beloved brother when we read about the earthquake that shook our area. Two days later, it was hurricane warnings and evacuation orders for our area as we landed back in USA, hours before the airport closed  due to inclement weather. 

We were lucky to wait out Hurricane Irene at our son's house just far enough from the dreaded path. I fretted and watched the Weather Channel with memories of Hurricane Isabel's destruction too clear in my mind, bracing for the worst but hoping and praying for a miracle. I am thankful for our wonderful neighbors and friends who generously secured our house and yard as Irene furiously spiraled her way up the Eastern seaboard. In the end, Irene spared us - our town, our house and our yard is intact. We drove back home on bright beautiful dayafter and  now only have to clear a bit of debris. And we did not loose power, water or gas service.

For days, sorrow, worry and fear has gripped my heart as I struggled with the uncertainties of life. Now, I am forced to learn to appreciate every single moment; to not take anything or anyone for granted; to be just grateful.

Foliage for a Dream

A Day in the Life... Sketchbook Project page 15 color pencil

In the peak of summer if trees look like these, it is definitely cause for worry!  When I was working on my Art House Sketchbook Fiction Project earlier in the year, the trees were still bare and looked nothing like the lush green ones I see outside now.  From my first Fall and Winter in the USA many many moons ago, I have never ceased to be amazed by the bareness of the trees when the temperatures dip and seasons change. I still wonder if the very first people ever knew that the trees would burst back into life in a few months.  

'The place is all awave with trees,

Limes, myrtles, purple-beaded,

Acacias having drunk the lees

Of the night-dew, fain headed,

And wan, grey olive-woods, which seem

The fittest foliage for a dream. '

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

Balcony Seats

Balcony Seats Digital Photography

'Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.' 

Rabindranath Tagore 

Mini Sacred Pause

Slow Sunny Day watercolor 2.5"x6.5"

When I was in Istanbul two years ago, this scene by the square near the Blue Mosque caught my eye. I can't remember what she was selling as she sat there on that very sunny hot hot day. The square was quite crowded with pilgrims and tourists but I saw how the lady watching the child and the child joyfully chasing after the flock of birds were each in their own world.  In this miniature, I choose to paint just that. It was a challenge to paint small and only some of details but I loved the process. 

I read the other day in a article "Sacred Pause" written by Hugh Bryne and Rebecca Hines :"In the midst of daily life there are simple ways to take a “mini sacred pause,” bring awareness to what is alive here and now, and relax into presence" Doesn't it look like the lady and the child know how to integrate those mindful principles? As it is life is very fragile - we definitely need to take and appreciate these 'sacred pauses.'