That Eventful Night

That Eventful Night  watercolor, pen and ink 5.5x3.5” by Meera Rao 

That night in July 2020 when the confederate monument in the neighboring town Portsmouth, Va came down, I sat glued to the TV.  I did a small sketch with a pen as I watched the events unfold. A huge crowd gathered around the monument with their cell phones in hand recording the historic event. Unfortunately the statue came down on one of the people involved and gravely injured him. Almost a year later when the anniversary came about, I watercolored my sketch.  Last couple of days, issues about removing the base of a toppled Lee statue in Richmond, Va has been in the news reminded me of the sketch  tucked away in my sketchbook. 

13 years and 620 posts !

 Vanilla cafe. Pen and Ink by Meera Rao 

November was a busy month and I did not get around to posting on my blog. I missed the blog anniversary - 13 years and 620 posts :) A big ‘Thank You’ to all who have visited, followed, read and or left comments. I have met many talented and generous artists who broadened my horizons inspiring me to do better.  I am really grateful for all the support I have received ! 

Having this blog has been a wonderful incentive to keep sketching and painting which in turn has helped me grow as an artist. Over the years I have become more comfortable sketching in public, experimenting and not minding imperfections in my work but seeing them as valuable guides to develop further.  Vanilla cafe  was sketched on location - we visited this cafe every morning for 5 days during our stay in London in late October.  This is a nice little memory of great soy lattes and vegan croissants during our stay :) 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 53

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 53 December 27-January 2 

The nature’s jewels whether it’s the largest rough diamond mined and then crafted into a necklace or the vibrant colors of the blueberry bush in winter are all wondrous!  ‘The Cullinan Blue Diamond necklace’ in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar  2020  a gift given to his wife Annie by Thomas Cullinan ‘ features nine blue diamonds and 253 colorless diamonds in rose gold and silver setting made around 1910. Suspended from the bow is the 2.60 carat Cullinan Blue Diamond, named for Thomas Cullinan, then Chairman of the Premiere Mine in South Africa.’  It was to commentate the largest diamond ever mined at 3106 carrots.  That diamond was gifted to King Edward VII of England.  I don’t know if the miner who found the diamond received any bonus! 

Blueberry bush in winter colors watercolor by Meera Rao 

A year of sheltering at home savoring the beauty and wonder of nature, moved me to appreciate and be grateful for every day miracles. I revisited the  year 2020 as I  posted these 53 sketches and my thoughts! In January of this year I received my first covid-19 vaccine.  Yet, ten months later, the pandemic is definitely not quite over and life is going on in a new normal- much different and still masked! 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 52

The Great Conjuncture of Jupiter and Saturn 

On December 21 2020, we were fortunate to watch the great conjuncture of Jupiter and Saturn as the the planets appeared closest to each other in the night sky. It was a treat to watch it right from our backyard soon after sunset without a telescope ! The conjuncture happens once every 20 years when Jupiter overtakes Saturn in its orbit. This one was the great conjuncture because it is the rarest of the conjunctures between naked eye planets -separations of less than 10 arcminutes have only happened four times since 1200- this being the most recent. According to NASA website  : What makes this year’s spectacle so rare, then? It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.”  We, at first could not really believe what we were able to see with the naked eye - double checking it on NASA and other astronomy websites, and watching live streams from astronomy centers. We went in and out of the house admiring the universe’s wonders ! 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 52 December 20-26

Grandma Moses Out for Christmas Tree 1946 (oil on pressed wood) graces this week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020. ‘This winter landscape includes a number of charming vignettes as people pick out Christmas trees, pull sleds up a snowy slope, and chop firewood.’  As sweet as the scene in the painting is, my cherished Christmas memory for years to come will be the great conjuncture !!! 

This is week 52 - but there is one more page and one last sketch to share to complete my ‘Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020’ ! 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 51

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 51 December 13-19 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar had an unexpected benefit for me - I learned a lot of interesting history through the photos for each week from the Smithsonian collection. The stamp pictured is a $1 beer revenue stamp proof single, 1871 Card, scarlet and black ink engraved frame and vignette from the collection of National Postal Museum. Who knew there was a beer revenue stamp !!! According to the write up on the page, “at the time this stamp was printed, the federal beer tax was $1 per barrel. Brewers purchased sheets of the stamps without gum or perforations, cut the stamps apart, canceled them and pasted them over the stopper of the beer barrel so that tapping the barrel destroyed the stamp. This 1871 proof contains two mistakes : Secretary of Treasury Hugh McCulloch’s name is misspelled ’McCullogh’ and the word ‘printing’ contains a typo.”

I am not much of a beer drinker - beverage of my choice is coffee with lots of soy milk ! This particular morning a rainbow fell  through the window across the tablecloth and the coffee mug - best start for a beautiful day ! The table cloth and the patterns on my cup complement the photo on the opposite page quite well. Savoring the moment, I knew what to draw for that week :) 

Rainbow cup watercolor and pen by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 50

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 50 Dec 6-12 

The shirt pictured in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for week 50 is from Harlem Globetrotters from 1960s. It is at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  The caption reads: ‘Although founded in Chicago in the 1920s, the Harlem Globetrotters name helped identify them as a black team. While barnstorming through the Midwest, the team developed many of the comedy routines that would lead to their international fame.’  Mushroom is a ‘fungi’ that is why I paired it with the Harlem Globetrotters  -  fungi /fun guy - get it ?  ;) 

Mushrooms  Watercolor by Meera Rao 

 

I  found this beautiful, colorful mushroom in our backyard. I loved the colors and it’s shape. There was only one mushroom of that kind. Even after looking through guide books I was not able to identify it definitively. I was not aware that taking a spore print might have helped with the identification. I have since then been reading up on mushrooms/fungi and in awe of their underground network as well as their role in the ecosystem. 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 49

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 49 November 29-December 5 

‘Richard Avedon’s eye catching posters of the Beatles- created at the height of the band’s fame- became icons of youth culture in the 1960s. This psychedelic portrait of John Lennon (1940-1980)-[ offset lithograph on white wove paper] appeared on the cover of a special issue of Look magazine in 1967 that chronicled changing times in a tumultuous decade.’ 

That is the explanation in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for week 48, and my colorful sketch for the week chronicles the unexpected fun I had with my granddaughters during the ‘shelter at home’ year.  We met via video chats. I quickly learned from them how to use all the different fun features :) We giggled and role played for hours. I am forever grateful for the silver lining that shone through during those dark pandemic days. Even though I am thankful that they are back in school, busy with their lives,  I really miss those video chats and the time we spent together chatting, reading, playing away happily. 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020  Video Chat fun by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 48

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 48 November 22-28

The beautiful Yuit (Siberian Yup'ik) carved Eskimo ivory flatware (1920-23) from St.Laurence Island, Alaska, in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 pairs nicely with our Thanksgiving dessert plate :)  We had a simple thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us but we are still so grateful for this loaded dessert plate courtesy of our many friends! Sharing even during the pandemic shelter at home days added that wonderful rainbow to our lives. 

The Dessert Plate watercolor by Meera Rao 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 47 Nature’s Calligraphy

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 47 November 15-21

‘I think I will never see a poem

 as lovely as a tree’

~Joyce Kilmer~ 

My husband and I try to walk everyday and record 10,000+ steps. Every few weeks we get the urge to go somewhere different and change our routine a bit. As always, Nature, during the covid shelter in place days,  has been a source of magical moments and I have been documenting my joys, awe and surprise in small ways.  This particular day last November, we came across this tree with beautiful vines by the water looking like nature’s calligraphy.  Then I saw the photo for the week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 - Adel Ibrahim Sudany’s cover art for One Sky,2018 Album by the Rahim AlHaj Trio. The caption for that photo reads : ‘Sudany’s painting for One Sky echoes the statement of humanity’s oneness found in the music of Iraqi oud players and composer Sourena Sefati, and Palestinian American percussionist Issa Malluf. Sudany is an Iraqi designer, calligrapher, and professor of Arabic Calligraphy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.’   

I feel a beautiful tree like that may have inspired the writers long ago to create flourishes and calligraphic styles! 

Nature’s Calligraphy watercolor and ink by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 46

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 46 Nov8-14. 

Deepavali, the Festival of Lights is celebrated in India and by Indian diaspora all over the world.  It is a five day festival around the New Moon day of lunar month of Karthika (October/November) observed by lighting of rows of Deepas/ Diyas/lamps, puja/prayers/worship, exchange of gifts, wearing new clothes, sharing of lots food and sweets, and of course getting together with family and friends. The festival is a celebration of good over evil, knowledge/enlightenment (light) over ignorance(darkness), While the stories behind the celebrations vary from region to region within India, the essence remains the same - cherishing the inner light, hope and restoration. 

It just so happens that I am lucky to have been born on one of the days of Deepavali festival- and in addition to my actual Gregorian calendar birthdate, my family also celebrated it on one particular day during Deepavali. So it is a very special festival for me! I sketched a festive ‘rangoli’ on the page using the age old dot system (this one has 5x5dots scheme) 

Rangoli for Deepavali by Meera Rao 

The photograph in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for that week is of William James Aylward’s American Schooners, Old Harbor Marsellie, 1919 Charcoal and Watercolor on paper. ‘Aylward was one of eight artists commissioned by the U.S.Army to join the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War 1. Having grown up around the docks and shipping of the Great Lakes in Wisconsin, he here adeptly captured American schooners docked in the harbor of Marseille, France.