the plum tree

Pulchritude

2012-02-01T08:18:00.000-08:00

Design for a Special Book

2012-01-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

Cover - Reworked a week ago

Some time ago last year, I took a series of workshops for the children of Shishu Mandir. The purpose of those workshops was to incorporate the illustrations made by the children into the design of a book about the institution. The book in this post is my design, created around the children's pictures.

These are the endpapers for the book

Above and below are portraits of Hella Mundhra the inspiring founder of Shishu Mandir.

Both paintings were done by Varalakshmi, one of the students in the workshop.

Here below, is a picture of the superstar of my workshop, Varalakshmi

She was a quiet, dignified little girl who produced bold and striking drawings

Right at the end of the last workshop, I told her I wanted a large dark green background for the cover.'Yes Ma'am' said Varalakshmi calmly. She then look a large sheet of paper and full tubes of green and black paint. As we stood around her and watched, she held both the tubes mouth down above a plate and squeezed with both hands. Pachakk! We gasped as the entire contents of the green and black tubes landed on the plate. Then Varalakshmi calmly took a large brush, mixed the colours and started painting.

Varalakshmi painting a tree

which I incorporated into the design below.

In the picture below is Bhuvaneshwari, another hugely talented painter.

Do you remember her beautiful tree from a previous post?

I've used it below and the picture above is one of her painting it.

Bhuvaneshwari also created the stunning picture below.

Here are some of the other pages in the book with paintings done by different children at the workshop.

Naagaveni has a distinct and unique style.

This is her tree from one of the exercises in the workshop.

And this is her fantastic deer below

More pages with paintings.

Since each of the stories had a unique and distinct identity, I used a separate colour for each story dictated by the story itself as well as the illustration that was used.

As you can see, the design is built around the paintings and the colours of the pages partner them.

Designing the book was fun, but it also involved a lot of thinking and a great deal of hard work (12 hours a day for a month). A project which started with workshops sometime in the middle of last year for me, ended now. This book is the result of it, inspired by the beautiful painting done by these children and it is my applause to the absolutely amazing children of Shishu Mandir.

You can read more about the workshop here>>

and here>>

A toast to 2011

2011-12-26T00:02:00.000-08:00

As 2011draws to a close I feel the happiness and satisfaction that flows through the system after partaking a varied, unusual and delicious banquet which satisfies allthe senses. I find myself more content and fulfilled than I have ever been. For this I must give thanks and I raise my gilaas of strong SouthIndian filter coffee to my many many friends. There are those who have always been my anchors sinceeternity, many new ones, the virtual friends who have transmogrifiedmomentarily into reality, the real ones from my past who are now purely virtualand the wholly virtual ones - all of you who have changed my life so much forthe better with your kindness, thoughtful actions, your thoroughly enjoyable company,help, laughter and love, I couldn’t have done it without you all.

To thatvery dear friend of mine who once thumped the table and made that greaseinduced declaration over an empty plate of Gobi Manchurian saying, “Youare responsible for who you attract into your life”, I take another slurp ofsuper strong filter coffee, thump the table back and reply, “Yes, dahling,absolutely true!”

I wish each one of you reading this, an enjoyable new year ahead.

Lekka Pustaka

2011-11-24T02:18:00.001-08:00

Ever since I saw Nilesh using a bright red cloth bound book as a sketchbook I wanted one too.
It is a 'lekka pustaka' explained Nilesh, an 'account book'. The paper inside is great to draw on and even holds watercolour. And it is a fraction of the cost of expensive Nightingale books at upmarket shops.

I just liked the fact that it was RED and BRIGHT PINK. I couldn't sleep until I had one of these.

The ever informative Prabha was more specific - this is a 'Jain account book' she said.

Gujju baniyas (Gujarati businessmen) use it to keep their accounts.

Notice the Goddess Lakshmi on the title page. She is the Goddess of Wealth.

:-)

The pages are numbered. Such a nice touch.

Good paper

Bright and Chubby!

It may lack the elegance and sophistication of a more expensive sketchbook but it makes up for it with its chunky presence and colourful personality.

Bright red and shocking pink are such a striking colour combination.

It satisfies the 'Indian' in me in every way.

I also bought and Indian calendar in the same shop.

It is from Diwali to Diwali madam, said the shopkeeper.

So much character

Here are Nilesh's drawings from his Lekka Pustaka.

And this is his cruel caricature of me ;-p

a WaLk along Avenue Road

2011-11-24T02:09:00.001-08:00

The rest of the pictures as always on Gilaas of Chai

Chlorophyll Eaters

2011-11-23T19:58:00.001-08:00

There are some insects which eat the chlorophyll off the leaves of my White flower creepers

leaving beautiful squiggly designs on them.

1/1/2012: I think I might have found a clue to who these Chlorophyll eaters are.

Here is the link >>>

Gold Pages

2011-11-21T20:21:00.001-08:00

There is only one place for shiny wrapping from expensive chocolate.

red and black

2011-11-21T20:13:00.001-08:00

Pretty gifts given to me by Chandan :-)

Do check out her blog with its rich and opulent photographs at Girl About Home.

The feature on the interiors of Goan houses is rivetting.

Prabha's Falooda

2011-11-18T03:17:00.001-08:00

After an intensive Corel Draw tutorial, P and Iwent around searching for a much needed sugar high. We decided to have chocolatesandwiches. When Hari’s super sandwich joint was closed, we went to the Lassibar nearby to mitigate our disappointment. I ordered Royal Falooda. It was a nicebaby pink colour as a falooda should be. P took some time to make up her mindand then ordered the same thing. She hadto wait a while. In front of our eyes the falooda man carried a strangepoisonous looking brown bottle, opened the freezer and poured a generous amountof mysterious stuff out of it into one of the containers inside. Then he mixedit well. Then he poured some more brown bottle stuff and mixed some more…

‘What is it? What is it????’ Prabhafrantically craned her neck to see.
‘That is what he is going to serve you’ I said.
‘No! No!! No!!! Please God no!’said P frantically, ‘I want to know what is in that bottle!’

We knewwhat was in that bottle when her falooda was served. It was bright pink incolour. At least 6 times more pink in colour than my falooda.

I hope sheis still alive.

Process

2011-11-16T23:20:00.001-08:00

A long timeblog reader commissioned me to do two illustrations of her family. This is thefirst one.
I am pleased that she came up with the idea to ask me to do such a picture asthis.

I recall another blog reader requesting me to show the process involved inmaking a picture and I am happy to do so especially since over the years I’verealized that most people don’t really know the process involved in creating apicture, the kind of fine materials used or the amount of time involved.

I firstdrew each one of the family members using photo references and modifying theirposes into the kind of composition that I wanted. As you can see, I’ve stylizedthe faces and the figures since there is nothing more pretentious or ghastlythan trying to be realistic. I cut out the individual figures and fit them intothe composition that I wanted, shifting and adjusting the spacing till I got itjust right. Then I lightly stuck this onto a sheet of paper with gluestick andtraced it out on Arches Vellum paper by placing it on my lightbox. I also traced out the faces on a smallersheet of Vellum as a trial (third picture left corner). I try out a bit of thecolour version in this first to make sure the faces turn out right before I tryit on the actual picture and to make sure the background colour looks alrightwith the foreground.

For theactual picture, I first lay a coat of Faber Castell white pastel on the facesand hands and then work over the face and the features using Caran d’Achewatercolour pencils in sienna, browns and reds and black for the eyes. When Isay pastel, I am not referring to ‘pastel shades’ which is usually a termdefined for light creamy colours. Pastel is a soft dry chalk which gives outintense colour and is used directly onto the paper. Empty ball pen is used toetch out strands of hair and this is coloured over with black pencil. Thebackground and the tree is a mixture of both pastels and watercolour pencils.It was quite challenging to work on A4 size especially while getting thedetails of the faces and the background between the trees.

As anyartist reading this will know that there is so much is more than simply laying on thecolour. I have to figure out where to give just that little bit of depthnecessary, add some different colour to something which is looking flat, tonedown or enhance colours, whittle the edges of the drawing…these things can hardly be described in a post but issomething which happens instinctively and is the result of years of practice. (Iliken it to driving a car. You aren’t really consciously putting brakes orchanging gear, you do it unconsciously, in a kind of automatic mode where somewhere in the tunnels of your mind you know this needs to be done). Once thepicture is finished, there is a little bit of tweaking here and there and thenthe decision is made that it is over, finished. Then it is wrapped up intracing sheet and placed carefully inside a cupboard.

This process took about an hour to write but it took about 14 days of work - thinking, conceptualizing, drawing and colouring.

Sunday's Menu

2011-11-13T20:52:00.001-08:00

Am tired of looking at things and drawing. Makes for a boring sketchbook. Here I thought of things and drew them as they came to mind. BUT looking at stuff and drawing is necessary too. It gives drawing skills a workout, like practising scales on the piano or pushing your body around a park. It helps me capture what I want to draw faster.

I am so relieved. I completed a secret projet on Sunday.

Life has whittled down to the bare minimum these days - draw, eat, draw, eat, do a bit of exercise to keep the scales just below 60, crawl outside to socialize at Pencil Jam about once a fortnight, talk for 3 hours on the phone the other fortnight, then eat some more and draw again....

Snaps from Sunday

2011-11-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

Those Two boys

2011-10-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

Those Lilies

And that Cat

*

2011-10-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

Look it Over

I leave behind even

my walking stick. My knife

is in my pocket, but that

I have forgot. I bring

no car, no cell phone,

no computer, no camera,

no CD player, no fax, no

TV, not even a book. I go

into the woods. I sit on

a log provided at no cost.

It is the earth I’ve come to,

the earth itself, sadly

abused by the stupidity

only humans are capable of

but, as ever, itself. Free.

A bargain! Get it while it lasts.

~Wendell Berry

via Keri Smith’s blog

In the Forest

2011-10-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

by Bhooni, one of the students at Shishu Mandir

who participated in my painting workshop .

'See how beautifully he’s painted me, lost in the forest, among the trees, the branches, the grass. As I wait, a wind begins to blow’the leaves tremble, one by one; the branches sway. I’m worried. How does the artist’s pen manage to reach so far? The branches bend in the wind and rise up again, the flowers grow and fall, the forest swells like a wave, and the whole world trembles.'

~ extracted from In the Forest as Old as the World by Orhan Pamuk. Other Colours

Two boys

2011-10-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

These two boys, urchins, came and watched us draw at the Sunday Pencil Jam session at Kempegowda Museum. Later I saw that one of the boys and procured himself an old tissue paper and a ball-point pen refill and was trying to draw. The other Jammers and I gave the boys paper and pens to draw with. Later they came back and solemnly returned the pens and papers to me. At first I couldn't make out what it was that the boys had drawn until one of the Jammers pointed out that both the boys had drawn each other. You can see it - ears, eyes nose, mouth and also the hands :-)

Picture of the boys taken by Prabha on her cellphone.

an ENTIRE day of drawing

2011-10-16T23:15:00.000-07:00

When I bought my new giant sketchbook, I called up Prabha to tell her. We decided to spend a day sketching at Lalbagh and we landed there at 7.30 am one day last week. It must have been one of the happiest days of my life ever. Here are the pictures:

Curious teachers with their school kids wanted to know why we were drawing, 'chumma jaaliya (jolly) pandringlaa?' they asked in Tamil (Are you doing this just for fun?)

Yup!

Here is Prabha's drawing

Naturally we also brunched at MTR and our meal also included delicious Honey Halwa

and a large ice-cream with fruit. Sugar highs are absolutely necessary to get the drawing juices revved up.

At another table strange creatures from Bangalore's Art world peered and waved their tentacles at us.

When I said we are going to Lalbagh for an entire day of drawing they looked mystified. Drawing? Huh? What's that?

Giant Silk cotton trees

I need an even bigger sketchbook I think!

Here are some pictures of couples under the trees. I love how tiny they look under the giant benevolent trees and I love how the trees almost seem to envelope and shelter them. Prabha mysteriously commented: It is unfortunate that one can't make out whether a relationship will last or not just by looking at these couples.

The moist, rich and fascinating floor under a Naagalingam tree

And the marvellous tree herself

Finds.....!

Prabha has the eyes of an eagle. She spotted a Barn owl far up on a tree in the distance and she pointed out these red bugs to me.

We were ravenous at tea-time. Back to MTR!

Here are some of Prabha's sketches

We drew till the sun set, chatted with curious old men and children and headed home before the mosquitoes came out.

Some day that! : )

Aloe Vera

2011-10-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

One quick post to procrastinate just that little while before beginning work.

I did these drawings on Sunday.

And of course somebody was mighty busy doing what she does best ; )

Shapes

2011-10-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Depth

2011-10-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

Over theweekend I was talking to P, the purest soul I have ever met till date. She is one of those rare women who finds good in everything andeveryone. She was enchanted by acertain watercolourist’s work much to my annoyance. The certain watercolourist’swork is superficial, I declared. It lacks depth!

What is depth? asked P

Somethingwhich is superficial…

I was stumped for a definition about ‘depth’. It bothered me.
I found the meaning that Dictionary reference.com gives for depth in relation to art:

depth (dɛpθ): intensity or profundity of emotion or feeling

Still, inspite of the nice technical definition of depth, I’d like to think ‘depth’ issomething which is better experienced than described.

Here arethree works of art which for me are the very essence of depth:

* Vladimir Horowitz playing Traumerei in the video posted above
Or anything played by Horowitz for that matter.

* OdilonRedon’s Shell in Musee d’Orsay in Paris < click here >
We often forget that what we see on our screens is but a pale shadow of theactual picture itself.
In real life Redon’s work sparkles like a jewel.

* Jean Giono’s small story The Man Who Planted Trees < click here>
What can I say except read it.

These dayswe are bombarded every single minute by hundreds of thousands of imageshurtling towards us. Thanks to the blog world the amount of art we see is soplentiful that for me it becomes a blur. I space out. I have to confess thatthe more I see, the less I like. I keep going back instead to my three eternal favourites.And I regain my equilibrium once more.

“The outward work
will never be puny
if the inward work
is great.
And the outward work
can never be great or even good
if the inward one is puny or of little worth.
The inward work invariably
includes in itself
all expansiveness,
all breadth,
all length,
all depth.
Such a work
receives and draws all its being
from nowhere else except
from and in the heart of God.”

- Meister Eckhart

I know there are Latvians, Ukraines and Finns silently looking at my blog. Hi there!

*

2011-10-06T03:52:00.001-07:00

Your Smile

2011-10-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

:-) (-:

Rambling in the Studio

2011-09-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

The wonderful thing about being part of a drawing group is that watching others attempt subjects which I wouldn't usually choose compels me to attempt them too. The picture of the old colonial house above is my first attempt at drawing a building. I sat beside Rashmi as she drew The Colonial Bungalow at one drawing session and after numerous attempts at drawing it with pencil, pen and other sharp pointy drawing instruments and badly botching things up, I found that Rashmi's picture (below) kept nagging me. Then one early morning, I just went and sat in front of the actual building and drew the scene in front of me using the edge of a charcoal stick and everything fell magically into place.

Here are some of the lovely sketches by other Pencil Jammers:

Rashmi's version of the Colonial building above

and George's sketch of Church Street below

______________________________________________________

These fabulous sketches below are by a mind blowing Illustrator who does not want to be named. Just look at his drawings anyway -

and this sketch below by Rembrandt.

The skill, class and beauty of the pictures above are truly inspirational.

'Artists who look at rubbish will always draw rubbish'

Go back to the Old Masters instead and read this piece of passionate writing by Illustrator Mahendra Singh on why Illustrators really need to draw as if their lives depended on it

< Click here to read! >

Gift

2011-09-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the postman delivered a gift for me all the way from Belgium, from long time blog reader and friend Megha. Inside it there were these charming little pots of Bonne Maman jams (which are frightfully expensive here), and ...and...AND.....

...small, intimate and mysterious,

a Kurrajong Seedpod

Two things I like best - sweet stuff and Seed pods. Thank you so much Megha. I am really touched by your gesture.
Do check out Megha's beautiful blog and her spectacular photography at Arth and Nitya.

Found

2011-09-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

Aren't they exquisite?

God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought.

It is as simple as that.

~ Joseph Campbell

___________________________________________________________________

Those gorgeous red seeds in the speckled pods are seeds from the Sampige or Champak tree (thanks Prabha). The scent from the flowers of this tree create a feeling of euphoria and are used to produce one of the world's most expensive perfumes called 'Joy'. ( All info from Google Search of course). The seeds of course leave lovers of nature utterly enthralled.

My friend Prabha paints nature that she finds on the road in her beautiful watercolours. She has printed her sketchbooks and they are for sale.

Do have a look at her lovely work on Curve and Line.

REDBOOK in Kyoorius!

2011-09-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

I must take this break from a break from blogging to sound the horn ...can you blame me? My Redbook got featured in Kyoorius Magazine! There was my name on the cover too in big block letters. I never ever would have thought something done for fun would end up getting featured in a Design Magazine.

Please click on the link below and click on the grey icon with my name to read the write up:

Redbook in Kyoorius

You can see my entire Redbook in a slideshow here >>>

and you can read all about The Redbook Project 'exchanges' in my old blog here >>>

Pardon me for sounding so excitable.

ps: Thanks a lot to Vineeta of Artnlight for helping me get my hands on a copy of Kyoorius !

Okay, back to my break ;-)

*

2011-08-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

Red Leaf . Pastel on paper. 14.5x10.5cms.

"what are you going to do with your life? In one way or another it seemed that people had been asking her this forever; teachers, her parents, friends at 3 in the mornin', but the question had never seemed this pressing & still she was no nearer an answer......... 'live each day as if it's your last', that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy? It just was'nt practical. Better by far to be good & courageous & bold & to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately & fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance."

~ D Nicholls.

via Arth and Nitya

To this, I'd like to add 'eat well and spend less time on the internet'. And in the spirit of doing that, I'm off now to prepare lunch, draw more and take a big break from the net. See you later.

:-)

a weekend in august

2011-08-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

One Day

2011-08-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

Priya at 42. Chubby, curly and very very happy.

Tree

2011-08-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

At National Gallery of Modern Art

Sculpture! Book!

2011-08-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

Oh My God! What a striking resemblance to my Mom!

'What is this?' you ask excitedly. Let me tell you dear readers, let me tell you:

This is a fantastically complex Pop-Up book illustrated my Maurice Sendak and made by... let me see...

A 'Paper Engineer' called Matthew Rienhart!

Photographs don't do justice to this intriguing and complex book. I was so lucky to get my hands on it.

;-)

Some Stuff

2011-08-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't been drawing as much as I usually do what with mysterious aches attacking me and the ever present French conjugations staring at me. I decided to go ahead and do what one has to do anyway. The first two sketches went phut and I thought, 'finished! I've lost it! I'll never be able to draw again!'. Then I drew a little more and things slowly fell into place. Somewhat. But the point is I could breathe more easily after drawing something.

Window

2011-08-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

This evening, there was beautiful light at my window. This is the loveliest place inside my home where I spend many tranquil hours. As you can see, someone else agrees with me too. We both spend time here together. Below are most of the other pictures I've taken of my window over the years.

Being a Friend

2011-07-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

What a moving sight. 200 000 Norwegians at Oslo City Hall raising Red Roses.

Both 9/11 and 22/7 are days when unique acts of evil were carried out, but what a difference in the reactions between the two countries. America reeled in paranoia and distrust while Norway stood together in steely determination refusing to succumb to revenge.

Here is George Bush’s reaction to 9/11: “Let’s hunt them down”.
In retrospect that didn’t really help matters did it?

This is Jens Stoltenberg’s principle for dealing with 22/7: "Violence must be met with greater transparency. Terror should be met with more democracy. Now we have to take care of each other."

The thoughts in his speech were refreshingly simple and straightforward >>

I am tired of dramatic rhetoric. I am tired of this desperation by priests and leaders to force attention on themselves through their verbal pyrotechnics. I am sickened by audiences who are carried away by extravagant sermons trumpeted out by our grand religious and political pundits from their gilded pulpits. I am tired of loud, barbaric and insensitive journalism. And most of all, I am tired of people turning a blind eye to the rather obvious fact that religion, any religion if taken too seriously results in a massive shrinking of the brain.

Finally, heroism is the action of kindness you extend when no one is looking. That's what really matters.

Images from Google Search.

Click here for Rose procession at Oslo

Hold Hands

*

2011-07-25T00:11:00.000-07:00

If one man can show this much hate think how much love we can show together.

- survivor of Utøya massacre.

Picture from The Guardian

Utoya blog

Weekend

2011-07-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

*

2011-07-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

Long ago I decided I wasn't a person who liked poetry too much because I couldn’t understand the strange jumble of words that was supposed to constitute poetry. But recently a couple of journalist friends of mine confessed that they too had the same problem. Poetry (at least most of what I come across) is rather like Contemporary Art, both have a bizarre mishmash of elements. I am glad I am an illustrator.
In case you are wondering what the * this strange book with its cut up images is about, it is an illustration of what Poetry means to me.

Just sit there and stare and wonder what the heck is going on. Then go browse something else.

There are some poems I do like very much though :)

Workshop at Shishu Mandir -1

2011-07-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

Shishu Mandir is a children’s project consisting of a home and a school for children of under- privileged backgrounds. When they wanted to come out with a book about the institution, I took a series of workshops out of which the children’s drawings could be used as illustrations for the book. Since this project involves ‘illustration’, I made an exception to my rule of ‘never teach children’. I needn’t have worried as they were far easier to deal with than the stuffy overbearing aunties who I once made the mistake of teaching long ago.

One visit to Shishu Mandir and I was bowled over by the place. The buildings were clean, airy and beautiful. All the rooms were full of light and filled with a friendly ambience. The teachers smiled readily and seemed a very dedicated lot. Everything here was so different from the excessively eulogized, stodgy, colonial, pressure filled, rule driven atmosphere of a school in which I once studied centuries ago.

The children here smiled easily at me and some of them came up to me confidently and asked me my name. Later at the workshop they were fun, and were eager to experiment and try out things. All the children were neat, clean, well dressed and well mannered. They all spoke perfect English. They seemed relaxed and happy.

It is very very hard to imagine that these children with sparkling eyes and bright faces have known and endured hardships that you or I cannot even fathom.

Apparently this is the first time they got to be ‘creative’ and 'original' and draw subjects other than English winter scenes, Walt Disney cartoons, copied greeting cards and that kind of stuff.

One of the biggest surprises was at the end of the workshop. Every child made it his or her responsibility to clear up her place, scrub her table clean and help the others tidy up the room before leaving.

Some of these pictures here are the results of the first workshop.

I can't wait to see what the results of the next workshop will bring about!

:-)

Perennial - Just more leaves

2011-07-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

When you start working everybody is in your studio - the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas - all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.

~ John Cage

...for this weekend

2011-07-09T02:37:00.000-07:00

Ring Man

2011-07-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

Benglurians and Kannada speakers will probably better appreciate the nuances and humour that took place in this little conversation:

Some days ago, I was driving down the road perpendicular to Comm’s (whatever it is called) and among the rows of carts selling fruit I saw a cart filled with unusual melons which were striped reddish brown and sienna. Already buying these beautiful melons was an enormous very dark skinned man. What immediately caught my eye was the array of bright shiny gold rings on each of his fingers. Each ring had a stone of a different colour and all together they clamoured loudly for attention. I was naturally transfixed.

Meanwhile the Ring man was telling the melon seller in Tamil that his melons had better be good, but then he turned to me and spoke in Benglur Kannada instead:

Idhu illi nodak chennagiruthe. Manege thagondhodhmele yengirutthe gothilla! (These fruit look good here but one never knows how they taste when they are cut at home)

I agreed with the Ring man wholeheartedly. Then I too sternly told the melon seller that he should give me a good fruit.

Then the Ring man looked at the melon seller:
Gandsru baidhre parvagilla! he said dramatically. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper, Aadre hengsru baidre thumba kashta!

(If a man scolds it doesn’t matter much, but if a woman scolds it is so hard to bear!)

I wondered who had dared ever scold the Ring man. I went back home and drew him immediately. It was supposed to be a black and white drawing but I couldn’t resist colouring in the rings and that led to the entire picture in colour. This quick illustration isn't quite perfect. I've had to cram an entire man, rings and melons into a munjified A3 sized space and that too when using charcoal. I'd ideally like to work on a sketchbook quadruple this size. But in spite of everything, this illo was fun to do.

Love Bug!

2011-06-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

From the plum tree

Herbie. I've finally got the car I've always wanted :-)

From the plum tree

White Sunday

2011-06-26T02:10:00.000-07:00

Green chilli flower

and

Clemantis

Burnt Offerings at the Altar

2011-06-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

The first six months of this year were idyllic and enjoyable apart from a couple of little hiccups here and there which are but natural in a life’s progression. Just as I was getting used to the good life came June and Saturn moved forward and trined with Uranus and made a hextant with Jupiter and all the planets conspired together to drag me by the hair through the Tunnel of Horrors at this year’s amusement park. Just twenty days into June and I've had Cat crises! Freak fright! Police pounce! Towering terror….! What next I ask, what next!

Last weekend a couple of friends (QGM and KFP) decided to show me the sights and took me to Malleshwaram, a place I had always associated with quaint Masala Dosa joints and temples. Instead I got to see the gigantic World Trade Centre, a man made lake and thousands of little cubby holes where people are supposed to live. Nature inspires awe but man made monoliths create intimidation. I felt small and insignificant. Then I made the mistake of visiting Mantri Mall soon after and got flattened completely by zillions of consumer goods hurtling towards me at top speed. My eyeballs fell out of their sockets when I saw thousands of shiny women descending escalators each of them laden with hundreds of shopping bags (have you ever watched ants progressing in a row carrying crystals of sugar?). I threw myself into an auto, charged home and collapsed into bed exhausted. The doorbell rang at six b**** thirty am the next morning. I felt my way through to the window to see the gardener come to make up work for a missed day. I mumbled something and grogged back to bed. On the way I saw myself in the mirror, I looked like the picture top left. Badly frightened out of all remaining sleep I went to the kitchen and drank three cups of strong coffee …then I just drew plants and bottles for the rest of the day. Somewhat soothing that. That’s why I have this blog, to cram it with drawings of bottled plants.

Why am I even posting this post? Who are you people even reading this ...this...stuff? My inbuilt blog sitemeter tells me that I have people from Ukraine reading this blog. Ukraine and Finland and Alaska.

Who are you? Say hello to me.

Sculptures

2011-06-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

Found by the wayside.

Marie-Laure de Villepin's Seed sculptures

Abhir Patwardhan's beaten metal seed pods

Homage to the Seed

Megha's pod collection

*

2011-06-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

HAPPINESS

~ by Paisley Rekdal

I have been taught never to brag but now

I cannot help it: I keep

a beautiful garden, all abundance,

indiscriminate, pulling itself

from the stubborn earth. Does it offend you

to watch me working in it,

touching my hands to the greening tips or

tearing the yellow stalks back, so wild

the living and the dead both

snap off in my hands?

The neighbor with his stuttering

fingers, the neighbor with his broken

love: each comes up my drive

to receive his pitying,

accustomed consolations, watches me

work in silence a while, rises in anger,

walks back. Does it offend them to watch me

not mourning with them but working

fitfully, fruitlessly, working

the way the bees work, which is to say

by instinct alone, which looks

like pleasure? I can stand for hours among

the sweet narcissus, silent as a point of bone.

I can wait longer than sadness. I can wait longer

than your grief.
It is such a small thing to be proud of this garden...

- for complete poem click here >

Today's Serving

2011-06-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

Fairing avec Charcoal

2011-06-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

So I learned it is a law of nature in my life that everytime my head blows up to twice its size there is always an occurrence to bring it back to normal size once more.

In French class I learnt that the French ‘faire’ everything. Faire = do. So the French, they ‘faire la cuisine’, they ‘faire du velo’, they faire un drame, they ‘faire de la natation’ in their ‘piscines’, they ‘faire’ every blessed thing. One day we were asked by our teacher what we ‘faire’ at work so that the rest of us could guess each other’s professions. In a class full of software engineers everyone said they faired with their blessed computers so there wasn’t any guessing to do; except in my case, having chosen this dratted profession as my life’s calling, I always stick out like a cabbage in a hardware store. I rather smugly said that I faire avec charcoal. Whereupon the French teacher screeched

“You work with charcoal? You are a chef!!!!”

M****!

Non madame, je suis illustrateuse…

Routine

2011-06-07T05:39:00.000-07:00

..........is a great calmer for bewildered pets and their over anxious servers.

Namma Chanda Lettering - Benglur Public Font Library

2011-05-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

The other day Mr. G posted about The Open Font Library on Facebook and mentioned the quality of their typefaces. I was really mystified I tell you. Why go and look at some foreign lettering in some ice cold country somewhere when we have our Namma Lettering here. No need for computer gomputer and all. Just take a walk along any street in Bengaluru and Aiyoh illi nodu! Abbah alli nodu! Yeshtu Chanda! Yentha Kaambinashun! So much different different lettering is there. Here are just a few examples -

To read more about a Brahmin Breakfast at this place please read here >>

See? We have variety as well as quantity. And no strange names like Eadui Medium and Nova Undercut and all. We just call our fonts by what they say: Prashanth Hotel Non Veg font, Brahmin's Coffee Bar font, Pooja jewels font...you get the idea no? So much easier to remember than that Ewdi Undercut thing.
Look to your own city and namma culture is vot I say!

Slideshow here >>

Do visit this excellent site which collects our unique typography - Hand Painted type
Thank you for the link Shreyas!

Some More Houses

2011-05-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

More houses here >>
and lots more over here >>

A Favorite Subject

2011-05-19T05:24:00.001-07:00

Illustration for a story called Red Rice and Fish

But the rest of the family indulged in gargantuan meals which steadily grew in size. One meat dish every day was replaced by two or even three. Biriyani, made every Sunday was also accompanied by Pork Vindaloo and fried fish. The women in the family got together with fellow church members and had weekly breakfast sales of hundreds of iced cakes and large pots of oily chicken curry, all of which they and the men folk gobbled up clean amongst themselves after church service. Then they’d go home, pray hurriedly and pounce on the mountain of food piled over their creaking dining table at lunch.
~ extract from the story written and illustrated by me.

____________________________________________________

Just for the info of some of the readers: This picture took about 8 hours to do. 6 hours non-stop last night starting at 10.30 pm and two hours this morning. That is why I work at night, no need to stop to eat lunch, wash dishes, answer the doorbell etc.
But I ate other things before drawing this picture: One package of salted peanuts, Diet Coke, 100gms of 70% premium chocolate...all ingredients absolutely necessary to get charcoal to do my bidding.
Now I must go eat some Ritchie's biriyani to replenish my energy...and then get some sleep.

*

2011-05-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

It seems as though Cathal and I spent that time in the shadow world, as though we were quietly lowered into the dark, everything familiar missing, and nothing we did or said could change this. Because no one harmed us or made us afraid, it did not strike us that we were in a world where no one loved us, or that such a thing might be of any significance. We did not complain. We were emptied of everything, and in the vacuum came something like silence – almost no sound at all, just some sad echoes and dim feelings.

~ Colm Tóibín
One Minus One

Le Grove de Bambou and some ART !

2011-05-17T01:39:00.000-07:00

Now I know that a lot of serious artists and serious art world people will not take mere 'illustrations' like mine seriously. " These drawings are not conceptual" they will say. "The inner you needs to come out!" they will suggest. As one very serious Art Historian, a PhD in Art History, pointed out to me at my exhibition of charcoal drawings - " your work is too beautiful. It is exquisite.You need to do some 'kachcha pichchi' (Kannada slang for make a complete and utter mess) and then your work will become Art!"
Well, for once in my life, let me take myself seriously and make some Art (mere illustrator that I am)!

Here are the rules:
1) Create incongruity (only, don't call it that, call it conceptualization).

2) Create MORE incongruity (the inner you needs to come out!)

What the **** are bamboo, mobikes and tomatoes doing in the same picture you may ask. Exactly! That is the very point of creating Art. It is to bewilder. Or, to put it in the right language - it is for you the audience to project your interpretations onto the picture. Go to any art gallery and look at the paintings there. You will see a trillion times more incongruity than you see here.

And if you the audience still cannot project your inner interpretation onto the canvas, try reading the catalogue they hand out to you...(yes, yes, those things are full of 15 letter words I know, but you see, that is what 'interpretation' is!)

3) Add lettering to show that your picture is profound! Bring your culture across! Indian lettering is even better! Foreign grants might flow towards it!

Aaaah! So Arty!

4) Now the title! Use words like inner, tree, pain, heart, woman, darkness, voice...you get the idea?

Well lets see....hmmm...how about Inner Voiceless Darkness

Very good I say! Sha bash! Now to Point number 5...

But the pedants among you are going to interrupt '...but what the heck is a tomato and motorbike doing in Art that is about Inner Voiceless Darkness?

Well, if you still don't get the point of this deep and profoundly meaningful picture, then I have done my job.

I can now call myself an ' Artist' !

But...but...

HUSH you nitwits!

And finally! The most important point of all!

5) Never EVER forget to add an outrageous price to your Art

Price for this picture: 75 lakh rupees.

Buyers can leave their contact details in the comment section. The rest of you can leave your inner interpretations there.

Magic

2011-05-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

There is a Red Flower in my Garden...

2011-05-09T03:43:00.000-07:00

MOTHER’S TEETH

2011-05-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

Apparently these false teeth hampered the free flow of black bile regurgitating out of her, so when I sat pinned down on order in front of mother listening aghast once again to yet another story embellished with her twisted lies, mother would put her fingers inside her mouth, grimace and katak, she would remove a set of false teeth and casually chuck it beside the sleeping cat on the side table. The cat’s fur would jam itself to wet teeth resulting in hairy teeth. Appalled, my hand would instinctively search for car keys to scoot out of the house where upon my fingers would touch something wet. Looking down I would see four teeth snarling up at me beside an ash tray. Screaming! Commotion! Indignation! I would flee out of her house with my own curly hair standing on end. Then one day on a visit, I picked a chakkli from a plate on the table to find yet another set of teeth menacingly lying in wait for me. I stopped visiting mother.

~ Extract from a story called Mother's Teeth

A Post FOR Colour!

2011-04-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends and acquaintances have expressed their dislike for the jazzy coloured walls of Begaluru. They want back the dull grey, pee stained walls of the past. I am shocked and appalled at their lack of taste! Who do they think they are?

To them I say:

Oh you Cowardly Chromophobes you!

Are you out of your minds?

Are you living on another planet?

Look around you people! Open your eyes and see!

The rest of us have well and truly painted away our stuffy colonial past with our brightest best.

We don’t live in the Bang – a – lore left to us by the Brits anymore. This is Namma Bengaluru.

Here we plunge into colour with abandon; we eat it, we speak it, we wear it, we live in it, we worship it, we dream it…

Look at our buildings!

Our signboards!

Our Gods!

Our houses!

Our cakes!

Our clothes!

Our real flowers

Our plastic ones

The sides of our buses

extract from this picture by Slogan Murugan

Our shops

This is us! We are colourful people!

And you nuts want grey?

The Flower Market

Strong!

2011-04-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

It makes a HUGE difference to my day when I start it with my GIANT RED* mug full of frothy, extra strong South Indian Filter Coffee*. I am on a high! I am in the ejector seat of a fighter jet! There is a bitchy story brewing on my screen and a dark and gruesome illustration baking at my desk.

It's going to be a kick ass day!

*Size of mug: 12 cms diameter!

*Brand of Coffee: Bru Select!

Beautiful Chaos

2011-04-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

after a summer rain.

At a Certain Age

2011-03-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

We wanted to confess our sins but there were no takers.

White clouds refused to accept them, and the win

Was too busy visiting sea after sea.

We did not succeed in interesting the animals.

Dogs, disappointed, expected an order,

A cat, as always immoral, was falling asleep.

A person seemingly very close

Did not care to hear of things long past.

Conversations with friends over vodka or coffee

Ought not be prolonged beyond the first sign of boredom.

It would be humiliating to pay by the hour

A man with a diploma, just for listening.

Churches. Perhaps churches. But to confess there what?

That we used to see ourselves as handsome and noble

Yet later in our place an ugly toad

Half-opens its thick eyelid

And one sees clearly: “That’s me.”

~ by Czeslaw Milosz

*

2011-03-21T05:38:00.000-07:00

In heaven all the interesting people are missing.

   ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The Devil has the best lines: How Satan has informed much of our great Art.
   - Article from The Independent

Butterfly Clover

2011-03-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

My new favourite in my garden :-)

Take a look at Megha's fabulous ones over here.

Thanks to her, I know that the correct name for this is Oxalis.

*

2011-03-16T04:41:00.000-07:00

Finally I'm glad to be back at my desk making progress on an illustration once more...

I'm getting back to sketching regularly. This one was done over the week end.

I keep thinking about the film Babel which showed seemingly unrelated situations and characters and how through actions, choices and events they become interlinked through the course of the movie. I am sitting here at my desk blogging and drawing while in Japan people are reeling under devastation and calamity. It seems unrelated to me right now with Japan so far away but I cannot help but think that disasters like this will end up affecting us all in ways we do not know and cannot fathom yet...

__________________________________________________________________

And I get to display this which is more than I ever expected - The Hair Myth hob-nobbing among all those deep and meaningful writings ;-)

This is as far as it will go since the top 6 will be chosen from here.

So thanks a million to all those who voted for me. I am really touched.

The Ferrero Rocher Garden

2011-03-11T07:46:00.000-08:00

I like to cultivate my Ferrero Rocher Garden.

I love chocolate. It inspires me :-)

Please Vote for Me!

2011-03-07T04:08:00.000-08:00

My blog post The Hair Myth has been nominated at 3 Quarks Daily for a prize. It has been listed at No. 40. If you've liked reading my blog and if you like that post, I humbly request you my supportive blog readers to leave your vote over here>>>

Also 3 Quarks Daily makes for utterly wonderful, varied and intelligent reading so do add them to your blogroll.

A Morning of Sketching

2011-02-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the Pencil Jam session at Venkatappa Museum:

I just ate up all the chocolate and ogled at the other's drawings.

This is a page out of the sketchbook of George, one of the brains behind Pencil Jam.

If you are in Bangalore, come join us for a Sunday morning of drawing.

More details here >

Old Coot

2011-02-15T01:21:00.000-08:00

This is a trial illo for a poem. I was surprised at what turned up on paper.

Sometimes I start with one person in mind and someone else turns up.

I haven't used graphite pencil in ages. The last time I did was here. And no wonder. Each time I use this wretched medium I keep thinking how much I dislike mediums with points. You have to know exactly what you want and you get exactly that. There are no surprises in store like what happens with charcoal. I finally ended up using the pencil like I do charcoal and that is when this strange personality emerged.

Those Great Big Mouths

2011-02-12T20:57:00.000-08:00

Why is it so difficult

for so many people to listen?

Why do they start talking

when there is something to hear?

Do they have their ears not on the

sides of their heads?

But situated inside their mouths?

So when they hear something

Their first impulse is to start talking?

~ John Cage

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It has been such a long time since I did an ‘ illustration’. Last year I did tons of charcoal drawings for my exhibition and this is the first time I have illustrated since then. In colour! Of course since the subject is a recurring theme on The Plum Tree blogs, it was beyond doubt that when I saw John Cage’s quote on The Plum Tree @ Tumblr I just had to push everything else aside and illustrate it.

Mirrors

2011-02-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

It is a pity we don’t sort and discard our beliefs and values periodically like we do most other things in our lives – old clothes, stale friendships, annoying spouses, junk in the spare room, mouldy food in the fridge...But however ill fitting it may be most of us still wear beliefs we have been taught by parents and teachers, lugging throughout our lives our minds stuffed with outdated musty programming like useless software in a computer.

If I were to still believe all that was taught and told to me in childhood and youth then I would still believe that all that was cultured, polite and genteel was always British, all that was great and successful could only be made in America and that Australia was some sort of wild bush country teeming with descendants of criminals who threw boomerangs at each other. I would still believe that elders had to be unquestioningly believed since they were the ultimate authority on whichever subject they chose to gas about and that priests and royalty were known to have special mystical powers handed specially to them directly from God since they were chosen from heaven above to do whatever they do...heck I’d believe pigs could fly if I were to still accept all that was doled out to me. Come to think of it, most of us believe some really, really strange things still.

When I was recommended the book ‘ Mirrors’, I couldn’t find it on bookshelves anywhere in Bangalore. [Ms. Virkar of Strand, yet another pompous Mumbikar living in Bangalore told me that Bangalore readership was not ‘eclectic’ but I’d definitely find the book in Mumbai where the readership was so very eclectic]. Since the book was suggested to me by the same person who recommended The Red Tree and 100 Years of Solitude, I did what most Bangaloreans do, I determinedly ordered it from the utterly super Flipkart service (with their wonderful Cash on Delivery option). If I could I would recommend this as compulsory reading to every student at school. Only the lyricism of Galeano’s prose would probably be marred by unimaginative teachers droning on on hot afternoons desperately trying to finish study portions and the colour of his words would be leeched out if students had to cram and reproduce canned answers to trite questions such as those asked at board exams here.

From the start, the beauty of Galeano’s sentences grabbed me and drew me into world after world within his short precise narratives where I either delighted in the pleasure of a new discovery or gasped in horror at the brutal reality of cruelty. I got to know a very different point of view – that which is not usually articulated.

I got to know stories about countries apart from the two universes shown to me at school - UK and US. Like floating over a world on a Google map and suddenly homing onto my desired destination, I got to know instead Paraguay, Dublin, Nicaragua, Rhodesia...and I learnt what happens to countries who dared show a finger to imperial powers.

We hear a great deal through the media about the successful. We are told to believe that success can be ours through the simple acts of thinking positive and working hard. What we don’t get to hear about is of people who did what it takes and did not succeed. Galeano writes about the people who tried and perhaps succeeded (if you equate success with a result rather than wealth) but who are virtually unheard of now or in their times – Suzanne Valadon, Tesla, Van Gogh...He writes what happened to to some of those after their success – Bebel Garcia, Patrice Lumumba...

It is easier to accept and please than to question and create unrest. It is easier to believe what has been told to you than to think for yourself since thinking for yourself leads you to frightening places like the truth. Truth involves battle, questioning, challenging, holding a mirror at uncouth behaviour, confronting evil, articulating the uncomfortable and transgressing norms, all of which don’t necessarily always lead to trumpets and victory. Eduardo Galeano shows us the truth about ourselves in this book by reflecting to us what we really are.

I leave you here with an extract so that you can appreciate for yourself the chilling truth that Galeano writes about in his powerful and eloquent voice:

HERE LAY INDIA:

Pierre Loti, a writer who sold tales of an exotic Asia to the French public, visited India in 1899.

He travelled by train.

At each station, a chorus of hunger awaited him.

More penetrating than the roar of the locomotive was the pleading of children, or rather the skeletons of children, their lips purple and eyes out of orbit, peppered by flies, beseeching alms. Two or three years previous, a girl or boy cost a rupee, but now no one wanted them even for free.

The train carried more than passengers. In the back several freight cars were filled with rice and millet for export. Guards watched over them, finger on the trigger. No one came near those cars. Only the pigeons that picked at the sacks and flew off.

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Black - Chapter - 2

2011-02-06T07:43:00.000-08:00

The Gruesome Faces exercise always threatens to overtake everything else in the BLACK workshops pictures, so this time I made sure I took some pictures of the other drawings that happened during that time. Here they are:

From Black - The Charcoal Workshop

Here is a slideshow:

It is inevitable that a bunch of Gruesome Faces should muscle their way in:

From Black - The Charcoal Workshop

And last but not the least, an utterly delightful commentary about this BLACK business here >>

Whew! Four workshops in 7 days. It was great fun but exhausting. I'm glad it's over....for now :)

A link to an earlier workshop is here >>

Scenes from the BLACK Workshop :)

2011-01-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

First the participants got an introduction to artists who draw in Black and White

Then they got an introduction to the Lethal Ammunition itself!

Charcoal!

Those are the hands of a Martial Arts expert (no kidding).

He can crack your skull open with a single blow if he chooses to.

He produced some really sensitive and beautiful drawings.

Here below are scenes from the Gruesome Faces exercise -

Look at the confidence of those lines!

These above are creations of the very brainy people who are holding them.

They are former students of the Indian Institute of Science (!) and they have never drawn before.

That's The General surveying the spoils from a Gruesome Faces exercise.

My students really conquered the medium I tell you!

Just look at them work!

Those two pink ladies are software engineers who produced some a m a z i n g drawings.

The Babe in Blue is Prabha who designed the awesome poster for the workshop.

First timers at drawing mind you.

I just wish I could've shown you the rest of the drawings but they were carefully sprayed,

wrapped up and taken to their homes.

Here is a frightening scene below - I was made to give a ' demo' with cameras aimed at me!

But I got an applause (which was really sweet) and a black nose (which is inevitable).

Here are some of the participants with their blackened hands,

rather bemused expressions

and big smiles...

If you ask me what the best part is for me as a teacher in the workshops that I've taken,

I have this to say - at the beginning of a session all the participants look so uncertain, they approach the medium so tentatively... but somewhere during the workshop I find them rollicking about in charcoal, black from head to toe, laughing, eyes shining as they surprise themselves with their creations.

And then, at the end of it all, when they leave, proudly carrying their booty rolled carefully under their arms, they beam at me and say ' Thank you! We had so much fun!' and my heart bursts with joy that I have made them draw once more. That for me is the best part of taking a workshop.

:-)

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Thanks to Ganesh (last pic, right dude) for sharing his pictures so generously with me.

Thanks also to the ever amazing Pencil Jam team for some of the pics used here and for flawless help in organizing the workshop. You guys are the best ever!

Hey you Pencil Jam Junkies...

2011-01-28T02:17:00.000-08:00

If you have the guts, register here >>

In the Den of the Dark and Brooding Artist...

2011-01-25T01:29:00.000-08:00

Since Pencil Jam is brazenly promoting me for the upcoming workshop, I think I should spruce up my blog to play its part too...

So here we have

Hastily tidied desk

Arty stuff hurriedly pinned over pizza menus

Artfully composed photographs showing just the essentials

Shhhh....when disturbed she is known to snarl

Did you know the stone on that ring was made out of her cat's eye? Gosh!

Wait! I think we should let her tidy up first!

Till she comes back, here is part of a dark and creepsome portrait

and...

Aaaaaaaaaargh!

Here she is all scrubbed and powdered - the grouchy artist herself!

* An Interview with me on Just Femme

Pics by Prabha and me :)

Workshop!

2011-01-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

More details at Pencil Jam
Poster designed by Prabha :)

Brisbane

2011-01-15T23:11:00.001-08:00

A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years but a photograph always remains the same...that is why I think a photograph can be kind.

~ Albert Einstein

Well over a decade ago I somehow managed to escape the clutches of a bunch of vile Neanderthals with whom I had existed in a dark, stinking soul destroying cesspool. I fled to Brisbane. It was a city which was quite literally heaven on earth. The dazzling Tropic of Capricorn sunshine made everything sparkle. The city was clean and green. The people were friendly, kind and happy. The food was delicious. And the sapphire blue Brisbane River, beside which I lived, carried me on a ferry during my explorations all over that paradise on earth. I met wonderful people there, lifelong friends who made me laugh once more, changed my perceptions, taught me to draw again and most important of all, taught me never to be ashamed of being myself.

But it looks like my life has never been without its ironies. While over the years I’ve created a heaven here for myself with whatever I had, that heaven I once knew and which was once so important to me, suddenly no longer exists. It is Brisbane that has turned into a cesspool. All that remains of that world now are idealized memories and old photographs. What is most painful is that I don’t even know whether the people I once knew and befriended even exist anymore. If I could I would fly there in a second to help clean up that city that I once loved so much and still do. I wonder what it takes to offer a helping hand from a different continent. While the virtual world in which we exist so much of the time is a powerful tool, it looks like it ceases to be effective when it comes to doing things that really matter during a calamity.

Germaine Greer's Article on the Australian Floods >>

*

2011-01-15T03:12:00.000-08:00

In ancient times cats were worshiped as Gods. They have not forgotten this.

~ Anon

Begonia leaf 2

2011-01-09T02:03:00.000-08:00

Sunday drawing

Begonia leaf

2011-01-08T01:32:00.000-08:00

I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.

~ Ranier Maria Rilke

Excellent article about classifying Art and Illustration here >>

Drawings from my Bottle Garden

2011-01-04T01:59:00.000-08:00

Nature does not hurry. Yet everything is accomplished.

~ Lao Tzu

with practise!

__________________________________________________

So the quote above is my new mantra for this year. It is a reminder about a fact that I have learnt with time and it is true about my skills in drawing. You do it long enough without biting off more than you can chew and you will go through stages until you get to a place that surprises you.

The points here are going to be something I will be referring to time and again. Hope they will be useful to you too.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all my blog readers. I wish you the best ever in 2011 :)

Pictures from an Exhibition

2010-12-18T10:47:00.000-08:00

More about this and more pictures at Rang Decor >>
Some of these pictures were taken by Shalini and some by me.

Well, well, well...look who's having an EXHIBITION!

2010-12-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

The seed for this idea was sown during a conversation I had with three very creative people – Prashant, Shalini and Embellisher during my first visit to Shalini's classy Plantation House in February this year. While looking through my old blog, Prashant expressed great enthusiasm about my charcoal drawings as did the others. The four of us talked about this and the conversation went along the lines of, ‘your charcoal drawings are excellent, if you had a body of these perhaps we could eventually show it here at Plantation House?’ Needless to say that during the entire conversation, the dreaded ‘Why don’t you have an exhibition question’ never ever came up.

Well...after that a body of work didn’t exactly materialize out of thin air (though perhaps I wouldn't have minded if it had). Instead I worked at dozens and dozens of charcoal drawings for nearly an entire year, which is the reason you see so many black and white drawings on my blog. I drew large drawings, small drawings, racked my brains on what to draw and which technique to use, tried this kind of charcoal and that kind of pastel, and all kinds of compositions, but most of all I experimented a lot, mucked around a great deal (cursed and swore) and just had a hell of a lot of fun doing these drawings. And to cut a long story short, nearly a year later, out of many, many drawings I chose ten for framing.

Meanwhile the hugely talented Prabha Mallya of Pencil Sauce looked at my ten chosen ‘dark and creepsome’ ( I love this description) works and whipped up the top hand written invitation for me ‘ Phat!’ Like that! Funky lettering and all! I took one look and it was love at first sight.

Then since the also hugely talented Shalini liked my picture of the crow, she took Crow and Prabha’s funky lettering and combined them both to create the invitation for me below. Gosh! That was love at first sight too!

So here you are Blog readers – TWO invitations to my exhibition! If you are in Bengaluru during 16th to 19th December and would like to meet the grouchy frizzy haired Plum Tree blogger in person, please come by and say hello. It would be such fun to meet you. I promise I am friendly in person. Gwen the Hen will be there, as will a Refugee and my Crow. Such exciting company!
So come on over!