Circles on Wheels

digital photography 

To understand is to perceive patterns.

-Isaiah Berlin

Drawing Fire

Delicate Dance  watercolor on Yupo

Last summer we enjoyed many Calla Lily blooms in our garden. This past week, I finally got around to painting one on yupo sheet many times before I was satisfied.  It was a tremendous learning experience to try out different colors and varying backgrounds simply by repeatedly painting and washing  off  until I settled on this rendition.  I am experimenting using only washes and water for texture. 

I borrowed the title of the post from a series of articles in New York Times  by Michael D. Fay. On June 6 2010, in the introduction to the series, NYT explains:  'In 2005, then Chief Warrant Officer Michael D. Fay traveled to Iraq in his capacity as official Marine Corps artist. There he fought with Marines engaged in Operation Steel Curtain against insurgents along the Euphrates River, and documented the events in sketches, photographs and audio recordings. Mr. Fay describes that experience here in “Drawing Fire,” to be published in five consecutive parts this week in Home Fires. It is based on material from his memoir, “The War Artist,” (earlier drafts appeared on his blog in January), and includes artwork and photographs from his time with Marine units in Operation Steel Curtain.'  His accounts of the war and the accompanying sketches paint the horrors that is deeply riveting and moving. Check out his blog 'Fire and Ice' and also the Joe Bonham Project, where you will find more sketches by 'group of illustrators dedicated to recording the faces and experiences of America's returning wounded warriors.'  Kandhahar Journal  has sketches and accounts by war artists in Afghanistan.  The artist soldiers give a different picture of the war. 

Happy Vishu

A Day in the Life-page 6 color pencils and pen

Happy Vishu - New Year to all. Today is New Year for most of the people in southern India. I did this page in my sketchbook for the Fiction project 'A day in the Life - in Blue Jeans with Gold Embroidery' a few weeks ago and waited to post :) The entry describes a ceremony from most Hindu households in the south on Vishu-Ugady day.

The copy reads:

I light the lamp on my altar. A mirror is the latest addition -a reminder of a special kind. In southern India where I grew up, the New Year is ushered in with a ceremony many centuries old. The night before, a special shrine is assembled in prayer room/corner with season's first fresh vegetables and ripe fruits, arranged around a mirror draped with fresh flowers and gold jewelry. The next morning, each family member is led to the shrine with the eyes closed. We open our eyes in front of the shrine looking into the mirror, now surrounded by lit lamps. shining in the midst of this beauty and abundance is our own face in the mirror. It is a beautiful reminder of the divinity in each of us. The same divinity that pervades all. I wanted to have that reminder everyday of my life.

I did assemble the special 'kani' shrine last night and looked in the mirror  this morning :) And a mirror has been a permanent addition in my altar since January 1 - the new year in the western calendar.

Lines or Forms?

Skylight at National Gallery of Art  Washington D.C. digital photography

Always lines, never forms! But where do they find these lines in Nature? For my part I see only forms that are lit up and forms that are not. There is only light and shadow.

- Francisco de Goya 

Ideas and Doubts

A Day in the Life - Swirl of Doubts page 5 color pencils

Generating ideas for the sketch book has been an interesting process.  The challenge has been to have  continuity in the theme and connecting one page to the next. Frustration with the paper has translated into not looking for perfection in my sketches or in the writing.  Letting go of the fear of failure is very liberating and I am somewhat enjoying the process of filling up the sketch book.  I read somewhere that Pablo Picasso once said "You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea."  Seems like I have taken that to heart. I have completed fifteen pages so far and have a few more to go. I am looking forward to see what I will come up with next :)  

Patience and Possibilities

Patient Pelican  Watercolors 6"x7"

I have been rereading  (or rather re-looking at the illustrations/paintings from) Jeanne Dobie's Making Color Sing. This was my very first purchase when I started painting in watercolors many years ago. Two days ago, her chapter on 'Mouse Power - achieving luminous grays' prompted me to finally paint the photograph of this pelican I had taken a while back. According to her 'mouse colors are like the bit players who support the stars.' 

I didn't quite follow her instructions or do the exercises,  but selected a transparent red, aureolin yellow, cobalt blue and viridian to make my grays, and used the grays to paint everything but the little yellow and orange patches on the bird :) A smaller brush than I normally use and waiting patiently for the paint to dry between the layers helped too.

Reading parts of the chapter while waiting for the paint to dry showed me the weakness in my  usual method of studying only the pictures in an art book rather than reading the chapters in detail!  I guess I need to change my ways a bit and not try to reinvent the wheel on my own!

I had moved away from her suggested rose madder genuine a few years ago since it had been rated poorly for color fastness in "The Wilcox Guide to the Best Watercolor Paints."   While linking her book to amazon.com, I noticed that there is a newer edition of her book- hope  she has replacements for the fugitive colors in the new version.

Meandering Lines

A Day in The Life - Rangoli doodle pilot G-2 pen

I am not sure  cleaning up my doodle when I transfered it to the Fiction Project sketchbook was a good idea.  After tearing off a couple of pages (now I have fewer pages to fill!) because my freehand doodle was not going the way I wanted, I realised forced doodling is not going to have a free flowing feeling to it!!! I have a weakness for rangoli doodles so I can free hand a rangoli when I have to and not check any rangoli design books.  Rangoli with these continuous lines are my favorite - I try to see how long I can go on with the line before it meets the starting point.  Some traditional rangoli start with even or odd numbered dots and you weave the lines around it. How you place the dots, how many  dots  in each subsequent rows, and how many rows of dots all lead to different designs. With regard to the sketchbook, I have decided to draw only on the right hand side of the book, not fight the thin papers and just accept imperfections.

Did you know Google has special doodles of its logo to celebrate important dates in a calender year. Check out their Google doodle art! 

Spring Signature

Dandelion digital photography

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

Henry David Thoreau.

Magic of Coffee

A Day in the Life - First Sip colorpencils 

South Indian Kaapi is very special and a matter of pride in that region. I had never known coffee was not native to India until I came across its origins in the menu-card in  an Ethiopian Restaurant in New York many years ago. Imagine my surprise-especially since my grandparents are from Coorg, the coffee capital of India :) I spent many a vacation with them and trips are all full of memories of fragrant white coffee flowers and red berries under a canopy of rubber trees. I often wondered about the coffee's debut in India since then but never pursued it.

Today  I finally went sniffing the coffee trail. I came upon the story of Baba Budan, a Sufi Muslim from India who brought back seven seeds as a souvenir from his trip to Mecca in  1720 and planted them outside his cave in the hills now known as Baba Budan Giri.  The coffee plants and the drink took a foothold in the area. The Coffee plantations soon became an industry under the British. 

I brought with me from India the traditional coffee filter to make the 'kaapi' and for many many years now my day has started with the ritual of drinking coffee in the special stainless steel 'lote'.  My hubby grinds the coffee beans fresh every time just before making the 'decoction' and that adds to the flavor :)  For the curious, check here for  recipe and ritual of south Indian kaapi.

Meditation on Light

A Day In the Life  colorpencils

The Fiction Project, A Day in the Life is slowly taking shape.  I am learning as I sketch and the most important lesson seems to be to keep it simple which obviously is not as easy as it sounds!  The quote in this sketch is an ancient chant "Gayatri mantra" from the Sanskrit Rig Veda to the Sun diety, the giver of light and life. Whenever I see a sunrise, I am moved by the beauty and reminded of this chant.  The English translation reads: We meditate on the beautiful light - may it guide and inspire our intellect in the right direction."