Homeward Bound

Back to watercolors after a hiatus. I feel returning to any medium after a break usually gives good results. So I decided to capture this Rajasthani shepherd in traditional clothes, out to graze his sheep on a wintry day.


The shepherd was not too difficult to do but it took me a while to get his sheep right. Especially getting them to stand out from the similar-coloured background.

What do you think of the results?

p.s. - Wishing all my readers from India a very colourful Holi, and my prayers for the people of Japan.

Lakshmi-Ganesh : The Diwali Bottle

Goddess Lakshmi smiling down upon your home and bestowing her divine blessings.


Sounds perfect for a Diwali setting, doesn't it?


And if she is accompanied by Ganpati....


....along with a bunch of lotus blooms, it only adds to the auspicious quotient!


My daughter loved Goddess Lakshmi's sparkly jewels and crown, while my son loved her pink complexion!! :)) I love the blue-black hair myself.


This bottle will be an ideal decor element during the Diwali season. How about using it as an accompaniment for the card table? Imagine trying your luck with Lakshmi and Ganpati for company! And those lotus flowers on the sides are sure to keep the moolah rolling in. :)

p.s. -Yes, for those of you who were keen to know, this is indeed the other side of the Royal Challenge bottle that I talked about in my last post.

Dealing With A Royal Challenge

I started out with a Royal Challenge whisky bottle. The shape was good but the logo embedded onto the glass at the top made things difficult. I had to think of how effectively to use or hide the logo, so that it wouldn't interfere with the artwork.


The round shape reminded me of the sun, and I contemplated doing a landscape with it. But its placement bang in the middle was not too helpful. Then I thought of something totally unrelated....


....And turned the piece into this. Howzzatt??!!


Ganpati with his mooshak (mouse consort) and a plateful of laddoos, and of course, with fabulous headgear! Now can you spot what I was trying to hide in the first place? :)

As for what is on the other side of the bottle.... Aaahh! for that you'll have to wait till the next post. Any guesses?!!

Warli Themed Bottle

Green coloured bottles lying untouched for months finally get a new lease of life. Warli motifs look fantastic on them as I discovered on a chance impulse.

Somehow all my bright ideas come at night when I hit the bed, and half of them are forgotten or muddled-up by the morning. But this one stayed with me, and wouldn't let me be till I tried it out.

I super-like the little stick figures that are so characteristic of the Warli style; aren't they absolutely endearing.

The tree is another important motif around which a lot of activity takes place.

Loved the fact that I could complete this bottle in one day flat. Bottles that drag on (and the detailed ones take days sometimes) tend to squeeze a lot out of me, leading to a phase of listlessness. But not this time....

Hope the innate celebratory mood of Warli art perks up your spirits for the weekend! :)

"Let's Get Some Dinner!"

Whoa, it is March already!! Last month has been busy, trying to deal with a number of things at the same time. And since there has been no posting for a while so I thought of making a comeback with this fun piece.

Love the words in the title! One bird could be saying that to another....

....or they may just be the words going through the tabby cat's head as he slyly watches the birds, waiting for them to land somewhere near. :)

Wouldn't this make a good display for kiddy space? Weaving a story into an artwork always makes it more interesting. I'm sure my kids will add a 'before' and 'after' to the title, and complete the story!

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?