Melons through water

An image in yesterday's edition of The Hindu was the inspiration to this painting. What also was a buoyant propeller was the power-cut at the bang of time when I wanted to sit to paint!

'Farmers use camels to transport watermelons to a market through the Ganga near Neemsarai village close to Allahabad on Monday. Watermelons are in high demand during summer', said the caption to this image. I found it wonderful - a tickle to a sweat-drenched me, to see the ships of the desert carrying an oasis on their backs while wading through ankle-deep water for parched throats. Reminded me of 'The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner':

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

Ho-hum... the summer's as annoying as the tantalising sea - or is it?

Sunny Embrace

After about a decade, I finally picked up a set of colourful threads and a needle and began work, thanks to the propelling from two of my friends, Nandini and Vidya who promised to keep me motivated. While this was initially supposed to be a cushion-cover, it turned out to be much too complicated to be put off as that (so my two teachers said and stayed the initial motivation!).

I went over-the-top in making this piece - at times it felt intimidating! I had fun in the 6 months that this took to make - no, not every day and just a few minutes on the days that I sat with it! Thoroughly joyful to make it, rediscover embroidery and finally gift it to a dear friend... yay!

Peacock in Splendour

This piece took its own sweet time to make - the colour-scheme confused me! At first I wanted it to have pinks and purples and that particular light blue (which was a discovery I made in the school's thread-cupboard!). But I had to finally give in to my instinct of the mismatch that the pink was to the beige of the background. While most thought that it was silly to even think of unstitching so much of the pink, I decided to do what it takes to be proud of a little piece of art. Working more feverishly than I had planned, it was completed in no time - and gifted to my proud Mom-in-law even faster! (Double-yay!)

And that was the other little story. When I went home this summer, I found my Mom-in-law at the brink of a massive embroidery project herself - a whole bed-cover! What I thought was inspiring, turned out to be intimidating to her; after all, she hadn't picked up the needle and thread in the last 35 years! We spent a few days figuring out the colour-scheme of her magnum opus (to-be!), ran around in a sweltering summer afternoon in Chennai looking for the threads and finalised on the stitches that she would use. She turned out to be a diligent student who had been (believe it or not!) putting in hours of graft and toil ever since, referring to this piece (above) as a ready reckoner for the stitches that she needs to use in her own piece!

Her child- enthusiasm is infectious to say the least! And her diligence to become a student again is humbling...

Streaming Mist

I want to hear the sound of trickling water - not just wipe it off my neck as it trickles down! Just as I was about to begin painting this scene, the power went off and with it, went off half my enthusiasm to look closely at the reference picture on my computer!

"Ugh!", I thought to myself. The very next moment, however, saw me "folding up the sleeves of my work-clothes and putting my shoulder to the wheel"! I finished this painting really quickly and thoroughly enjoyed watching the washes blend into each other on the stone. I loved the multitude of colours, though I know I could have done a much better (read 'realistic') job of it! But I forgave myself partly thanks to the fact that I was doing it purely out of memory of the reference picture and partly thanks to the fun that painting this was!