BRUSHSTROKES THAT BROUGHT COLOUR INTO MY LIFE

About a lifetime ago, I picked up paints and an easel and some raggedy old brushes to try my hand at oils...





So that when the Sunflowers happened to me...My first attempt at getting the symmetry right...I failed miserably..but then realised if I got the aesthetics correctly, toss the symmetry out for a bit...Can you believe I spent nearly two days perfecting that core of the flower...My very first painting...

Soon enough I gained enough confidence to attempt others....

Thats an SS Sheikh painting, suitably improvised to fit my canvas size and as usual, i screwed up the sizes, so my focus of the painting varies from his, quite a bit...but I love the dog in this painting, looking at the bullock cart so yearningly...

Some others I feel are definitely better in style and technique..But remember all are copies of good artists....I realised my art lay in interpreting theirs in my way - no offence meant to them...


This one is a personal favourite...the foam that sprays as the waves hit a rock...and the growing darkness as the sun hides behind the clouds..

 

And then there are some of the later paintings, once I had mastered the techniques of colour mixing and dividing my canvas spaces right...

The deer caught in a clearing...startled by something..Its a powerful imagery...and as usual, I love the way sunlight streams in, that wasnt easy, but the result is also so wonderful









Ohhh... there was this one, that I had specifically created for my favourite aunt, as she built her own dream home...I never thought I'd end up in a countryside like the one I had painted for her, five years ago.

The Brighton countryside with the lavender tinted hills in the yonder, the cottages so similar..the colours just the same...just that I see in autumn what I painted in spring..

This one was done at a tumultous time in my life. That could be why this has a special place in my heart.      It's a much reproduced painting, but I love the blue hues, the choppy ocean and the efforts that are evident to steer the ship through the turbulence. The white foam rising from the sea was so wonderful to paint..making the sea look alive was the challenge.

And there were many more, some I forgot to photograph, some others lying around somewhere, when I do manage to photograph or locate them, I shall include them in this blog..For now, here's one more...My Amma's Favourite, one that occupies a place of pride in our living room...

In the hot, hot Kerala summers, a look at this cold frozen landscape perhaps gives Amma a sense of comfort..I love the lilac colours of the sunlight reflected against the white and the comforting warmth of the red brick cottage with its own water wheel...I remember how I struggled to paint the waterfall...Each ripple has to be created...But I definitely count this my best re-production to date..

So thats my little collection for now...Promise to add more...Soon, I hope...

THE AUTUMN SONG

When the cold nip in the air,
Strum the ears sharply,
Each breath you take,
Rises to heaven in silent smoke
Know autumn has turned the corner

When the trees mourn the warmth

Shedding leaves, ladies in mourning,

The final blaze of colours, a reminder

Come spring, we will be young again

As the feet crunch the carpet of leaves

The air folds a cold towel over the earth

Winter keeps knocking, an impatient traveler

I tell autumn, Stay a while longer

Let me revel a last time in Sun’s shy caresses

Let my nose smell your pungent pines

Let me collect my last scraps of colours

Before you paint my land in white

O(H- NO)BAMA!!!!

Just when Obama was wondering whether the immense charm and aura that had hallmarked his successful campaign to the pinnacle of World power( or in less propogandist terms, the seat of US Presidency) was on the wane...comes the little fillip from Norway.... The awards - the coveted Nobel - that the World believes is an impartial and independent recognition of individual contribution to ensuring World Peace comes knocking on the White House... But pray why? Is it because Obama, fresh from the snubbing from the International Olympic Committee despite his overeager and personal endorsement of Chicago in the race for the 2016 Olympics ( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/sports/03olympics.html) found few takers, needed a moral boost to continue US' crusade against the 'powers of evil' threatening the World?? Or did the historic step taken by the Americans last year in putting a Black American at the helm of affairs of the nation overawe the jury so much that Obama's just over a 100 day government's 'call for peace' itself was seen as an 'extraordinary effort to enhance international relations' by a US President.. The Nobel jury's Thjorbjorn Jagland's press conference after the announcement sounded too hollow... (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8298690.stm) the quizzing journalists questions were taken with a sense of diffidence...the answer to how he scored over the others, considered front runners till the nth moment rather dissatisfactory.. What else was so evident on Barack Obama's resume that the adjudicating pundits of the Nobel committee chose him to have contributed more to world peace than Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai, whose dogged stand against their long standing President Robert Mugabe, saw him change..in a manner of speaking, the destiny of what was considered Mugabe's private fiefdom...Like the first runner up at a beauty contest Tsvangirai later called Obama a 'deserving candidate' but said he had no idea about the yardsticks used to measure individual contribution.. In fact, these days, I live in a sort of global village myself...I have three housemates- one is from Zimbabwe, another from Angola, the third from the United States. All have a personal interest in the award going to Obama. Both my roommates from Africa were initially overjoyed, for they felt it was a grand 'international gesture' - a symbolism of racial equality. For those brief moments of euphoria, we kept aside other Black winners - Nelson Mandela, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu who perhaps made the world proud when they won the Nobel for their efforts to steer South Africa out of apartheid... When the argument turned logical, in an effort to collate Obama's diplomatic victories, there were few that readily came to mind...And soon the justification was he's hardly been a year in the hot seat, leading to a thumping resolution passed in our kitchen that the award was undeserving.. The Obama administration has been putting a brave face before its people, but the number of policies introduced that have backfired seem quantitatively larger than his grandiose 'unify the world lectures' like the one delivered in Cairo (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09/) the proverbial reaching out to the Islamic world with an invocation of the influences left on him through his childhood... The Americans disillusionment with Obama's ' We Can' strategy is getting palpable by the day (http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/eB1Cd0aRBx30Mo0F7R20EY) And an award like the Nobel Prize might help ward off the spotlight for a brief while from these uncomfortable truths... But the question is as the head of the most powerful nation in the world, is the expectation from his internationally so little that a resolution passed to seek nuclear non-proliferation and a call to the world for peace effort enough to laud him? Or is it also the fact that as the successor of widely unpopular George W Bush, any efforts to undo the damage he wrought in his 8 years in the White House automatically qualify him as the harbinger of peace? Perhaps one of the journalist who was at the Nobel Press Conference hit the nail on the head when he put a direct question to the Jury head..whether it was the Nobel committee's efforts at 'direct intervention into US politics'.. a vote of encouragement for an embattled President who seems at a crossroads whether to play a global leader with a vision for the world or an expert troubleshooter for a country that despite its reputation, is floundering to keep its position on its high perch..

People that make India so special......

In a week that I have lived out of my comfort zone....roughly four and a half hours behind my body zone, I miss some people that so far I took for granted or sneered at...

The Ever loyal Bai: who turned up everyday come rain or shine....each time I put in a load of laundry into the washing machine or pull out the bulky vacuum cleaner from the closet, I remember how pampered I was...

The Neighbourhood delivery boys: that brought you all your heavy supermarket shopping home, even your fifty rupees order and gave a happy salaam if you tipped them a tenner..

The Sadistic Kachrawali ( Politically incorrect): who took inordinate pleasure in ringing the doorbell early Sunday morning, to ask a bleary eyed you with a smirk ' Kal party tha kya?' before clearing out your bins neatly.

The Annas of Udupi: who tortured my South indian tastebuds with their sweetened sambar, but always ensured I had a sasta, tikao, kaam chalau option to order out for

The Rickshawalahs: who always gave you a cheaper option to public transport, taking only the meter charge. How I regret fighting with them, when I count out the pounds to a haughty bus driver who does not even entertain me by discussing UP's caste politics...

The Samaritans: Now that Im in the country where there are 'miles to go before I sleep' and accents that make me wonder if I follow English, I yearn for my friendly Mumbaikar, who not only stops to give me directions, but also tells me distance in train stops with an instantaneous comparison with taxi fares and bus fares....

The Chatwala Bhaiyas: outside every apartment who always comes up with the right change for your hundred and also gives you spicy homilies as you slurp the panipuris down....

I also miss some who add masala to Mumbai's madness...
The Cosmopolitan Conversationalists: that have entertained me in coffee shops and pubs who instantly switch to a South Mumbai accent, only to visibly relax their guts as they suss out your more humbler northern suburb leanings...

The Chronic Cribbers: for whom travelling from Virar to Nariman Point on work days seem hardly any distance, but crossing the bridge from East to West on a weekend is next to sacrilege..

The Bargain Hunters: who hold their nose in disgust as they trek through the filth and muck of Dharavi, but come up with leather goodies that are to die for...I now know where they derive their sense of bargain, when I see the goods here tagged nearly double their worth with a made in India tag on it..

The Ten Rupee Train Marketers : Who sell you everything under the sun for just ten rupees,now when you run to the Poundland, their competitive pricing seems unbeatable...

The Parsi Aunties: on the train who loved to narrate their tales of woe to their train friends of 25 years and more about how the rents in Cusrow Baug have been unfairly increased for Rs 150 to Rs 300 from this month....