Ribboned Waters

In response to the innuendos of the sky to call it a day, the city flickers for "just a little longer". While the day sees the grey of citiscape, it is the dusk that glimmers to an oft-colourful kaleidoscope of various hues.



It's a drawing that just had to be made - regardless of the medium. In line with the flavour of the day, I ended up putting 60 minutes of crayons in spite of my doubts about the final piece. I won't say I'm delighted - but I'm certainly happy that it's as colourful as it was meant to be, nearly as vivid as desired and that the 60 minutes have been as tiring as a good walk at the end of which you simply know you've shed half a kilo!

Light-tickled still waters maketh many a citiscape memorable, isn't it?

Pastel Scribbles

It's been years that I last made a drawing in oil pastel. While early years at school saw us excitedly rubbing colour sticks from a array of 48, it's been intriguing me if my box of 15 would suffice for a reasonable piece.

Thanks to my inquisitiveness about the outcome, I went on the overdrive, certain since today's sunrise that it had to fulfil two conditions...

1. I didn't want to touch the pencil. It had to be ALL pastel - with no scope for errors (rather, huge scope for honing my cover-up skills!)
2. It had to use ALL of the 15 sticks

While the first drawing had me focussing on what flowers I wanted my "Spring Walk" to have, keeping in mind a colour balance (on both sides of the pathway), the second one had me dealing, additionally,with light effects and distance.

What fun it's been! Right from dirtying my fingertips to peeling off the paper cover over the sticks; from letting colour be the determinant for object to letting contrast be the guidepost for colour... it's been quite a compensation for the burnt-out after-taste of my filter coffee decoction this morning :)

Swaying Daydreams

It was one of those lazy mornings when bed-in-breakfast suddenly climbs up your wish-list as and urgent priority. Was it sheer lethargy that brought about Impressionism - I heard myself woolgathering. A gentle, subtle heady feeling made me grin stupidly at the idea of painting today. I didn't want to work too much with pencilling in any details.

Aimlessly wandering across some seemingly cobwebbed web-pages suddenly made me sit up with a discovery. Poppies have long been associated with daydreams, it said, thanks to the properties of one of its derivatives - opium.

Hmm... From meandering moods to bewildering brush-strokes - here it is!

PS
I've never cared much for the flower before this.

Autumn Revisited

There's something revolting about the general melancholic connotation with Autumn. The sundance of summer's gone and the chills of winters await round the corner - but could the seasons share a better cordiality than one spreading a splendourously warm welcome that the town's awash with? The yellows, oranges and red of autumn leaves mesmerise me with their nearly fiery vibrance. The barren tree branches, having let go of these vivid companions finally show their hereby hidden artistry of shape and dimension. I just love it!

At least I loved it till I tried to put paint to perception. I confess I was nervous to put that up here initially - and each time I logged on, I'd ignore that one post deliberately, just as you don't want to bump into the teacher who punished you years ago in school. I've hoped no one would see it either - or better still, choose to not comment on it even if they did.

Thank God they did. It didn't go unnoticed and I dared not feel escaped. My day began with a friend calling in commenting on everything else and subtly mentioning his disappointment at that particular one. The tree seems aflame; the green grass underneath looks unnatural for the season and the streaks of light look too fake!

That's it, I told myself - I need to give it another shot. I just had to do it - and do it today - at the earliest. Not that I had any better confidence in my abilities, but I simply couldn't log on to the blog another time without having an answer to my own guilty mind which taunted each time with "What about that one?" Here's what I did over the last two hours. I thought I worked at it and looked at my reference picture (and the flaws in the previous painting) carefully.

It isn't great. But I'll get better. I promise!

Stalwarts

There's something elegant about finding a grove of trees in the middle of nearly dried grasslands when you drive on the Grand Trunk Road while going to Chandigarh from Delhi. The stretch is really a visual delight, with patches of crops varying from blooming sunflowers to paddy, eucalyptus trees to nearly-barren grasses, and refreshing greenery to small ponds that dazzle reflecting the noon rays.

We didn't have a camera and we would drive too fast for me take down a rough sketch. But for a while now, each summer vacation would have this particular scene further embossed in my mind. I could have painted it much earlier - but like most to-do's that aren't tagged with a specific personal deadline, it never happened...

... until I happened to come across a water colour demonstration video on YouTube. If I could tell you how elated it had me instantly, how I whizzed across the room pulling out my paints and painting-book, and how I was glued for the next 2 hours, rewinding and playing various bits of the video for a closer look...I'd be a great writer!

And once I was done, I was jumping up and down. Though it was much different from what the demonsration intended, it looked so much like the one in my mind.

It was also a moment of self-discovery...I miss those annual drives SO much more than the vacations themselves...and SO much more than I thought I did!