Like I had mentioned in my previous blog about right people, I have a wonderful friend who always inspires me in arts. He is Sathiesh and used to come up with abstract paintings and strikingly different artifacts whereas I am stuck with the same Tanjore paintings and Kerala Murals. So I used to look up at him for new artifacts and try them. Recently he shared his work made out of Fevicryl Shilpkar - an air drying art clay. This is his work for his newly constructed house. I will try this material soon and share with you all. Till then please take a look at Sathiesh's work for inspiration.

I had drawn an Ardhanareeswarar mural a couple of years ago and l had felt that it looked more like a contemporary painting than a traditional mural. Also that mural was a bitter sweet memory and I gave it away to my sister-in-law who liked that mural very much. Oflate when I decided to paint a mural to overcome the loneliness / boredom, I found this image attractive from the Google image search. I decided to be more careful regarding the stippling techniques this time.

Hai Guys, I had completed my third Kerala mural painting - Ananthasayanam. Ever since my batchmate Mr. Ian had forwarded the image link to me, it was my fantascy to attempt. Originally I planned this drawing for 3 ft x 5 ft but had second thoughts whether I can be able to pull it off. While the wood work was going on I took a remaining plywood (1 ft x 2.5 ft) and started the Ananthasayanam painting on it. But while progressing only I realised that it would have been easy if I had started in the 3 ft x 5 ft board because the drawing had so many intricate parts which took a toll while drawing them in still more smaller board size. Atlast when I finished it, it gave me a sense of satisfaction and a confidence to start boards of larger size. For Kerala murals enthusiasts, I have photo documented the stages since the basic outline, so that you people can understand what exactly goes into these paintings.

Almost after a couple of years since I had made my last "successful" Kerala mural - Shivakudumbam, I got a chance to revisit painting. I was scouting for a nice painting to start with and I shortlisted few murals. However this Ardhanareeshwara grabbed my attention because of its difference in painting. Normally the feminine and masculine parts of Ardhanareeshwara were painted with contrasting colours that clearly demarcates them. But in this painting, the body colour was the flesh yellow but just the shades were made in green and orange for the Parvathi and Shiva respectively. At the end of the day, my mural looked more like a contemporary painting but what gave me the satisfaction was that I managed to get the stippling techniques better this time.

Of late I had stopped making Tanjore paintings because of my weakness in the area of poster colouring which decides the fate of the painting. After putting so much of efforts in embossing through muck and foil sticking, it is wrenching to see the painting losing its value with bad painting. So I had taken up Kerala mural painting as I am getting more comfortable with acrylic painting. I saw this mural - Vasudevar taking the infant Krishna to his friend Nandhan, who stays in Gokulam located across the river Yamuna on a rainy night and was attracted to it instantly. However I wanted my friend Sathiesh to paint that but since he hadn't started working on it for a long time, I decided to take it. This painting was started in Melbourne during stay at my friend Vijayakrishnan's house, however was completed after 7 months in India. Attached in the gallery is the steps of painting.

To kill time while commuting to/from office I use to watch movies in my mobile. But sometimes I don't feel like watching anything. Once I saw a co-passenger doing something with a stylus in his Galaxy pad, I got inspired and downloaded a sketching app called 'Sketch Guru'. I kept making sketches with fingers for a while. Once I got the feel of digital sketching, I bought a stylus pen and made few sketches which even I like. Here is the collection of sketches made till date.

Hai Guys, after a long time I tried my hand at sketching. It happened during a boring office meeting. I sketched Buttu seeing his photo in my mobile. Even though it was a single attempt without using any eraser while sketching, I can't say that it was a good one. I was happy when Akila realised that the sketch was Buttu. Her only comment was thet Buttu looked "elder" in my sketch. The second sketch in the blog was made by Akila when she was pregnant with Buttu. My mother in law said that it was surprising that Akila who didn't even draw her school assignments, made this sketch. I told Akila that I am sincerely praying for a baby girl but she drew a "My Boy". At the end God had answered her prayer and Buttu sometimes resembles the photo which Akila took as reference for sketching. These sketches are now for your viewing!!! Click the thumbnail for viewing them.