Dawn at Muscat

An acrylic painting on a 26 by 32 inches canvas. This is my impression of Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat. It is the main mosque in Oman and poses a sight of serenity.

Each day, the dawn begins my day in two special ways.Since I live very near to beautiful mosques, I get to hear the dawn call to prayer even before 4 am during this month, it is kind of soothing and soul healing.The other highlight of the dawn is being able to enjoy the sun in its full glory, almost like a ball of fire since the sky is mostly clear with not many clouds.

I look forward to dawn every day, it feels like a new beginning, a hope for a better tomorrow.

The Vegas Moment

This is Las Vegas at night, done in acrylics on canvas sized 20'' by 24".I have tried to bring in Bellagio fountains along with the Paris hotel in the back drop. I took reference from a video that I took when I visited Vegas. Many of the largest casino, hotel and resort properties in the world are located on the Las Vegas Strip.It feels like a fairy land!

From Echart Tolle to Deepak Chopra, I have read them all, trying to understand what it is to be in the present moment. Reading is one thing, practicing what is being read is all together another ball game! I have not been very successful to be in the present moment at any given point of time..either the mind is thinking about what happened in the past or it is worrying with anxiety about the future.To be in the present is the key to true happiness, say, the enlightened. For me, the present moment experience happens whenever I sit and watch ocean waves or trek through woods.Nature is so powerful that it makes you forget about your worries and anxieties. But surprisingly, I could be in the present moment when I was in Vegas strip, enjoying all around that was a feast for my eyes, everything man made, quite contrary to the nature that always helps me to be in the moment. All I could see on the faces of the people around me was joy, as if there was no real life existing outside, life that has ups and downs that pull us away from the present moment.

For me doing this city scape was challenging. I was not too sure as to what details I could include and what I had to ignore. I needed to really feel the place and decide the colors to be used. Just to give an impression of the trees and the lights that are in front of the buildings was hard for me since my brain is trained to think details.The sky looked dark in the video, but when I used just the prussian blue, it looked sober to the core and lacked drama.So I decided to go for lighter values near the lighted buildings. Anyway, It was fun painting this one and till I was working on it.. hmmm, I was in the present moment :-)

Reaching out

This is an acrylic on canvas sized 8 "by 10" done from a reference to my photo taken at Point Lobos, California. I have used the palette knife, now a days I am just in the mood for using it more! The trees looked as if they were reaching out to each other with their branches.I could feel a lot of life there.

The inspiration for this post is Patricia Torres who has lovely blogs that are very impressive and interesting. I was amazed when she wanted to feature my work on her blog..That, I would call as reaching out.. she made the effort to ask me if she could feature my home, not worrying if she would get a no for an answer. Her positivity struck me. I think her action is beautiful. You may want to see my home pictures on her wonderful blog. coloursdekor.blogspot.com

Talking about reaching out, I feel that reaching out to others who have a need to be heard, cared and loved is always a rewarding experience. For me, reaching out to help strangers has been more satisfying because there is an element of selflessness involved. The other day, I hired an auto(a 3 wheeler, more popular than a taxi in Bangalore) to go for shopping. The driver was speeding and he was quite anxious.I casually asked if there was anything wrong and he said that he had to make 500 rupees in another hour and rush to the hospital to be with his wife who was in ICU and more the speed, the more rides he would get to make that money.I asked him to stop, gave him the money out of my purse , asked him to go straight to the hospital and left from there.I dont remember his face today, nor will I meet him again in my life but I felt really good inside that I reached out to him on that day. Sometimes, when we reach out to just connect with others, we may not get reciprocation but it is okay, at least we tried! It is better to try than to be in a bubble. At times, a smallest action is enough to reach out and make others smile. Just yesterday, I was standing in the Que to pay my bill for groceries and my cart was full. When I saw a guy standing behind me with just a bottle of coke, I asked him to skip me and pay his bill, because it would take a longer time for my billing. Seems like he was in a hurry, he was all smiles!

Painting these hugging trees has been inspirational for me today :-)

The Mountain Might

This is an 8'' by 10'' acrylic on canvas. It can be any generic peak but the reference to do this one has been taken from the memories of my trip to Leh, Ladakh, years ago. It was a sunny day and the snow on the mighty Himalayas was melting a lot, creating quite a lot of patterns. I thought of doing away with my brushes for this work . I have used wet paper towel to do the sky and a palette knife and a roller for the texture of the snow on the rocky surface.

Ladakh is in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The flight from Delhi to Leh was mostly on mountains . Scared stiff of heights, I felt like jumping out of the plane and was pleased to end the journey to descend on a place that looked like God's heaven!

The towering mountains seemed to touch the sky. The snow, the air, the aura around was just an out of the world experience. Time seemed to stand still with the ringing bells of the monasteries and the rhythmic chants of the Buddhist monks.

We traveled by car and it was an off season, not a soul to be seen anywhere around except ourselves. The drive to Khardungla Pass, the highest motor- able road in the world was completely spent with my phobia for heights, the roads curving down around blind corners and embracing steep mountain cliffs . What did I fear for? My life? ! May be it was God's way of saying that whatever difficulties you may encounter upon your path, your strength and courage should remain unshakable like His creation of mountains. I did not give it a thought at that time. But today, I would love to go there again and enjoy for what it is meant to be because I am more mature (seems like!) and have conquered (almost) the fear of heights and anything else :-) Introspecting on one's own behavior after many years is so good, it helps to know how far we have traveled in life!

Canyon through my eyes

All I can express about the Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA) is that I could see it only as an embodiment of God's awesome creation on earth. Its multicolored rock walls, craggy cliffs, and sandy slopes has left me in awe. Years ago, my brother wanted to buy a Grand Canyon painting but for some reason he could not, since then I have been wanting to paint one for him. My desire to paint it became deeper when I myself visited the Canyon and experienced its grandeur. Here is my version in acrylics on canvas sized 12'' by 14''. I did this referring to a poor picture taken with my small digital camera. I had to keep the source of light in mind, which is coming from my right side to block the shadow areas first..I did not want to over work and spoil the feel altogether! So simplified the details and just managed to get a feel of the place along with a glimpse of the Colorado river. All said and done, I would like to share this meaningful quote here that explains it all!
"The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail".
John Wesley Powell

Morning Spirit

The first painting was done for the June project of Unusual angles by Marion Boddy-Evans, the About.com painting guide.

I love my morning coffee with a lot of foam and before taking the first sip I enjoy the light that falls on each tiny bubble. I did a top view of the Steel cup that I was holding. Painted news paper bits to the back ground to add extra interest.
Critiques at home wanted me to redo it on canvas, as a pair to my kitchen painting "Parade" So I did the second version using the same colors that I used in" Parade".This time, I held a mug with a handle and also put more milk in to my coffee:-)

Ocean Talk

Point Lobos ( Carmel, California) is breathtakingly beautiful. It is a great spot for picnic or just a simple bike ride, more than anything else, a must visit for artists! Watercolor artist Francis McComas once declared Point Lobos "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world ".I took a lot of pictures when I visited this gorgeous place and plan to do a series of paintings to record its impact on my mind. Here is one that I have done in acrylic on canvas sized 9" by 12". As I watched the waves dashing between the 2 sets of rocks, it felt as though the rocks were in continuous conversation with each other through the language of the waves, I am sure an interesting one at that!