When I Am Not Stirring A Curry…

…I pick a paintbrush up! I made a copy of this Jamini Roy Durga-Ganesha yesterday. The original painting is here.

The Elephant Is On The Wall!

My decision to do just the elephant from Roy’s Man and Elephant looked good when I teamed it up with the Black Horse I did yesterday.

I kept the same basic colors of heavy body red, carbon black, ochre yellow, and white, except that I used phthalo blue for the body of the elephant. I had used black for the horse’s.

And here is what the folksy elephant looks like…

The Haathi-Ghoda (Elephant-Horse) Pair

 

There Is Something About Mondays

I probably live in two worlds. One which hates Mondays and the other which looks forward to the start of the week, for the simple reason that it will eventually get me to another weekend! That’s how farfetched my optimism is.

Last Monday’s cam-to-cam conversation with my Ma-in-law about Jamini Roy, and her family’s close association with the great painter made me really excited.

I like to hear stories, and Ma is a great story teller or so I’d like to boast about her. I was told that a certain someone of Jamini Roy’s family used to “copy” his paintings and they would look exactly the same. And both of us joked about me copying The Doll, and that it did not look bad for a copy!

That was last Monday but today is another day.

Today I got over-enthusiastic about doing The Black Horse, and probably pair it up with an elephant to match the zillion Ganeshas that we have at home.

And here is what the end result was:

  Up on the wall!

I am hoping to get some energy into my Monday mornings too, just like a black stallion…

 

…and I needed Fleetwood Mac to tell me “Monday morning you sure look fine…”

Monday Wasn’t A Blur!

Refreshed with all the natural Vitamin D I have been getting over the last few days, I was toying with the idea of recreating a Jamini Roy painting today. Which otherwise is just a distant dream- to own a Jamini Roy! I am neither a museum, nor a collector.

As a kid growing up in India, I saw postage stamps with Jamini Roy’s paintings, one way to commemorate this great artist . Even went on to collect some.

Many years later, I was introduced to the remarkable block printed sari my Mum one time brought back from Calcutta.  Jamini Roy never fails to inspire. Timeless.

As I look more at the works of this artist, I get drawn to the eyes he drew. Sharp, focused, very folksy!

My pick of his paintings is this doll he made in the 1950s. Almost reminds you of a rural Indian woman. A goddess in her own rights.

I started painting this today. I knew I was going to have my personal Jamini Roy, this is probably the only way I can “own” one.

Take a look at this little piece I painted on the first day of February.

And she sits pretty with my CDs