Pictures from an Exhibition

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!

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!

:)

Gwen the Hen - A Second Serving

The first serving of Gwen the Hen turned out rather bland. This is the second serving with a bit more dressing.
This one can be dished out I guess...

Here is something that all artists can relate to:

30 steps to mastery

1. Start

2. Keep going.

3. You think you’re starting to get the hang of it.

4. You see someone else’s work and feel undeniable misery.

5. Keep going.

6. Keep going.

7. You feel like maybe, possibly, you kinda got it now.

8. You don’t.

9. Keep going.

10. You ask for someone else’s opinion-their response is standoffish, though polite.

11. Depression.

12. Keep going.

13. Keep going.

14. You ask someone else’s opinion-their response is favorable.

15. They have no idea what they’re talking about.

16. Keep going.

17. You feel semi-kinda favorable and maybe even a little proud of what you can do now.

18. Self-loathing chastisement.

19. Depression.

20. Keep going.

21. You ask someone else’s opinion-they respond quite favorably.

22. They’re still wrong.

23. Depression.

24. Keep going though you can’t possibly imagine why.

25. Become restless.

26. Receive some measure of praise from a trustworthy opinion.

27. They’re still f******g wrong (Right?)

28. Keep going just because there’s nothing else to do.

29. Mastery arrives, you mistake it for a gust of wind.

30. Keep. F******g. Going.

From here

Fluorescent Green

Nature has it too!

Why Don't You Have An Exhibition?

Portrait of a Refugee

To those well wishers who persist in doling out this suggestion to me, I would like to thank you but I would also like to clarify that my job as an artist is to draw and paint. If an exhibition happens it is incidental - a by product of my generated work, [like the joy of getting this teensy image of my work on a CNN site ]. I don’t exist as an artist to exhibit my work. I exist to draw. 

I would also like you who give me this suggestion to consider this:

Would you ask a doctor (any doctor), “Why don’t you perform a brain surgery?”

Would you ask a lawyer, “Why don’t you do a cross examination?”

Would you ask a software engineer, “Why don’t you go work in Infosys?”

You wouldn't would you? These questions would show up the fact that you know nothing about the profession that you are advising the professional about with your well meaning suggestion. Well, it is the same when you suggest to an artist.

Somehow when it comes to artists, everyone knows exactly what it means to be a painter. Anyone can do it. And anyone can offer advice on how to be one. Just whip up a dozen paintings and have an exhibition! Once a month if possible! Of course you know somebody who does that and you too would do it if you just had the time to do more of those pencil shadings and watercolours that you used to be so good at in Art class.

Recently a neighbour dropped by and noticed some of my paintings hanging on my wall.

Who did this?

I did

You? But this is professional! I thought you painted as a recreation. Did you copy it from a magazine or book or something? 

No.

Did you photocopy and trace it from a greeting card?

No

You did it entirely yourself?

Yes.

My! Why don’t you have an exhibition?

Ah hah! I knew you'd say that !

I don’t understand the connection between appreciating  my work (albeit with those strange questions about them) and ‘having an exhibition’. If you like some paintings it seems logical to ask if one could see more of them or perhaps inquire where they are sold. But to almost immediately ‘mentor’ me and tell me how I should run my professional life...

 -----------------------

And of course if I did have an exhibition, the immediate and predictable question asked would be,

“So how many paintings did you sell?”

Now why would you want to know?

Natural Habitat

I took a brief respite from city life within the Malenadu region. I felt like a tiger released from her cage and sent back into the jungle. The undercurrent of claustrophobia that is part of me vanished completely. I wallowed in fresh air, open space and orchestras by birds. Instead of mechanically trudging around a miniscule city park, I trekked along vast fields and waterfalls. I ate fresh food brought and cooked straight from its source and served to me with love. I slept to pitch darkness and woke up fresh at dawn along with a rising sun...

Here are just some glimpses of that magical world-

There is more in the older posts >>

A Heritage Home

My host's ancestors used to live in this beautiful house which is over a hundred years old.

His relatives still live here. These people have an amazing inherent sense of colour scheming which can floor the best interior designer in the city I think.


More in the older post >>

Wildflowers of Coorg

They were omnipresent and this is just a small sample of colour, uniqueness and abundance along the roadsides, fields and pathways.

Gwen the Hen

A friend of mine has a hen named Gwendoline. This is my charcoal drawing showing my new found affinity towards these birds.

I came across this piece of wisdom at the beautiful le projet d'amour:

nobody tells this to people who are beginners, i wish someone told me. all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. but there is this gap. for the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. it’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. but your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. and your taste is why your work disappoints you. a lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. most people i know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. we know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. we all go through this. and if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. it is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. and i took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone i’ve ever met. it’s gonna take awhile. it’s normal to take awhile. you’ve just gotta fight your way through.
-ira glass.

A Sacred Flowering

The things that we love tell us what we are.

~ St. Thomas Aquinas

This is called a 'Nun flower'. If you look carefully at the fourth picture, you can see why.

Read more about this flower here>

Proust Questionnaire

The weather is gloomy. It is raining ceaselessly. I haven't updated my blog in a while. I have to clear my desk. Best thing to do right now I guess, is to do a Proust Questionnaire from Vanity Fair and use it as a blog post.

1) what is your greatest fear?
That my parents will rise from the dead

2) What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A plate of French Fries

3) what is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My inability to be ruthlessly manipulative

4) what is the trait you most deplore in others?
their readiness to offer advice when I don’t need it.

5) what was your most embarrassing moment?
At the cookie shop at Garuda mall, this man came towards me with a smile and a tray of cookies. I thought he was offering free samples so I enthusiastically helped myself to one. He looked really shocked and said they were for his family who were standing behind me.

6) Who were you friends with this time last year and are not friends with now?
Something with a butterfly tattooed on its tit?

7) who is the love of your life?
Always been the bearded guy

8) have you ever said ‘i love you’ and not meant it?
All the time. On the subject of love I can speak only in clichés

9) What talent would you like to have?
The ability to instantly come up with witty rejoinders.

10) who do you admire?
Arundathi Roy. She gets us to notice the accumulated dirt shoved under the carpet.

11) Aside from property, what is the most expensive thing you've bought?
A pair of titanium spectacle frames 

12) what has been your biggest disappointment?
My country

13) if you could go back in time, where would you go?
Back to the sixties. The whole peace, love and flared pants thing really appeals to me.

14) how do you relax?
Mindlessly surfing the net

15) any one night stands recently
Like I am going to admit it on a public forum

16) what makes you depressed?
The gullibility of people

17) what is the closest you’ve come to death?
After eating an entire sweet chariot chocolate truffle cake

18) what would improve the quality of your life?
The elimination of smart asses who bombard me with advice about how I should improve the quality of my life.

19) what do you consider your greatest achievement?
My ability to drive through Bangalore’s traffic

20) what is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Horoscopes aren't true

Pretty Patchwork

These blankets are made from collected scraps of material by migrant construction workers. They are usually quite a common sight around a building under construction where they hang colourfully on grey cement. The dash dash dash of the stitches adds to the pattern made by the squares of coloured material. 
Look at the stitches on the green underside of the blanket in the second picture. Isn't it fascinating how the women have layered the most mundane scraps of material to make something beautiful? The printed bedsheets sold at big stores don't look half this good.


Remember that the women who make these blankets are also part of the invisible workforce that is building Namma Metro.