Krishna, The Cowherd

A little out-of-season perhaps, given that Janamashtami is way off! But I started this bottle sometime after the festival last year, when my daughter used to dance to a ditty dedicated to Lord Krishna.


After the initial Krishna icon, the bottle languished in a corner of my cupboard, and lay forgotten for many months. Then further inspiration struck and I pulled it out again.

Where else could Krishna play his flute, if not to his cows....


In the midst of a flowering garden....


Where peacocks roam freely, enchanted by his music!


This is the essence that this bottle aims to capture. So glad I finally completed it. Appropriate after all, in the season of love, given that Krishna was such an incurable romantic! :)

Mustard Fields

Fields of yellow swaying in the breeze - a common sight in these parts in the middle of biting winter chill.

When everything is enveloped in foggy grey, the yellow and green of the mustard fields bring a sense of warmth and colour. So I decided to depict the scene using two diverse media.

This first one is a watercolor...

It has a dreamy quality to it, does justice to the trees in the middle of the field, and captures the light of the sun pretty well.

This second one is the same scene in acrylic and crayon...

This one captures the distinct colours in the sky better, gets the mustard field in the right shade of yellow, and has more texture to it. But those trees aren't as good here.

So which one do you like more?

Sold!!!

I'm on cloud nine as I share this news with all my lovely readers.... I finally sold my first batch of hand-painted bottles this weekend. Yayyyy!!!! :))


My client zeroed in on Gulmohar and Blue Cornflowers as her favourite designs, and I sent her two bottles of the same size, created with large doses of love! :)


The accompanying photos show the beauties waiting to be dispatched. Apologies for not putting up better shots; I was only carrying my phone camera at this time.

Selling my creations was a bit like giving away your kids to someone; I almost changed my mind at the last minute! :) But my family egged me on.... I love them so much for their unconditional support, and for putting the wind beneath my wings.

I have another exciting announcement coming very soon for my readers.... so stay tuned and watch out!

Till then, my thanks to all those who read my blog (regularly or sporadically), who care to leave comments, who catch up with my work on Facebook, and who are the reason for my wanting to stay in this space. A big "Thank You" to all of you!

Colored Glass Experiments

All of you who have been reading my blog and following my work now know of my love for painting on transparent glass. But this time I decided to try something different, so I chose a brown-colored glass bottle instead.

Daffodils and pansies make an unlikely combination but they seemed to be the only colors that would show up on a brown background.

By far, yellow and white are the safest bets for a colored bottle. But methinks this limitation of the color pallette isn't a good thing....

....so I'll be back to transparent glass next time. Have some new designs hovering in the folds of my brain! :)

Stillness

Snow-capped peaks, a partly frozen lake, and a lone shikara.... that makes for a quintessential picture of the beautiful state of Kashmir.

Inspired by a newspaper photograph clicked earlier this month during the intense cold wave sweeping north India, the colours and reflections in this picture made for a compelling subject.

It also reminded me of the time I had visited the valley as a kid, and inspired another painting. But I'll share that one on a future post.

Hope everyone has a good week ahead!

The Final Cut

This one is a scene seen straight from my kitchen balcony - the farmhand cutting the final few of the season's standing crop.

The aim in this painting was to lay more stress on the figurative depiction. And to capture the tones of colour and folds in painting fabric.

Hope I managed to do justice.

Hurrying Home

Today it is one of those rural life based pieces that I created from the scenes I see around me everyday. It also happens to be my first painting of 2011. :)

The grass-cutters hurrying home in the fading light of the evening is a sight seen very often around these parts. Their days' work balanced primly on their heads, their skirts and dupattas billowing in the breeze, they make such a pretty sight. Here is a close-up of the work.

Work has been slow this month owing to the intense cold, and the extended school break of the kids. I'm trying to get back to a daily schedule slowly.