Colours of the Evening Sky

Violets, pinks, reds, greys and blues,
Colours wild & mild, of various hues
The sun is to set, setting the sky to fire;
My dear, its an evening to be shared together.

For many of us, the period between 5:00 to 6:30 is one of the peak times in office - with unexpected work cropping up (how do they manage to do so?!) and we getting into a crazy ritual to tie loose ends and complete unfinished jobs. Or in other, more peaceful days, this time is usually spent in the office cafeteria. The point is, we hardly get to come out in the open during these hours.

But if some had managed to come out and look towards the horizon, then they'd have atleast one fond recollection of the grandeur with which the sun says good bye for the day. How many vivid colours - orange, red, yellow, rosy pink, deep pink, purple, and innumerable shades of blue. The setting is so well framed by the darkness around.

Here are some of my fond recollections of the dusk.

The first one is a take on a photo which I thought will capture all the wonders of the sun setting, when we were on a tour. But it had just come out as a blur, because of the low light and because it was taken from a speeding car. My painting is an improvised version of it, bordering on abstract. The orange is more like a duppatta of a girl running in a distance. I like it for the various hues and the dry brush effect on it.

The second one is adapted from a photo in 'The Hindu'. I like it for the clouds - The orange tint on the clouds that are blocking the sun have come out well. The pinkish sky at the back of the clouds has also come out nicely. The light flare was definitely not created by me - its with a small usage of lens flare that I have managed to create this effect. I guess it looks more natural in this painting than in any other.

The Eye

Lie, swindle, but never you care
That's how life's, its just an every day affair
Hurt, kill, and nothing bad'll befall
But just you remember, those eyes see them all.

We do so many things - right and wrong. We justify that our bad deeds will be 'balanced' by whatever good we have done. But nothing escapes those eyes which are ever open and which see things as they are.

But they are not just those which are waiting to catch us stepping off the limits, but also are the kind, solacing ones which offer us support and guidance when our own eyes fail us.

OK, having given that sermon, this painting was an inspiration from the images of 'Calcutta Kali'or the Ma Durga. I started big and finally could manage to cover just one eye. Moreover, I was afraid if I would be able to draw both the eyes equally in shape and size.

The eye could have been more carefully done.Nevertheless, the painting still looks good, and I guess the eye has a feeling of kindness. Sari, will not brag more..

Reflection

It was a tiny seed that stayed very deep,
Struggle, it did, before it could take a peep;
But now its a tree, carrying a beautiful flower
Even birds learn to fly, before they could soar!

If I remember correctly, I think this is my 2nd painting in Adobe. This is one of my 'dream flowers',i.e. no photos or paintings were used as inspirations. That's why I like this so much.

More than anything, I like the way the background has come - a translucent blur of green in black, giving it a photo like feel.

And the flower has a very good variation of related colours - nicely gradated. Shades of red & orange are always my favourite, and I guess they have come out well. Finally, a frosted glass effect adds an addtional dose of charm to the painting.

The painting was named 'Reflection' just because I had used this effect; also it gives a feel of a reflection of the flower on a watery surface.

The Sleep

I know I'm in a tiny water drop -
Dangling on a leaf, ready to fall,
On to the ground with a loud plop
Gone in seconds before I can recall.

But let now my birds take to the sky,
My fishes swim in my lily pond - deep.
Let for now, this dream not die
Let be now just........ sleep.

A very early work of mine, attempting abstract or modern art.
With no offense meant to real artists, for me, modern art is a convenient way of
showcasing works which stand a long way away from the actual object. This is my
idea and I always do it. Otherwise I have no knowledge or understaning of modern
art.

Thinking now, I guess I had no specific idea before drawing this. I think I wanted
to paint something like a dreamy scenario. From a pond, I wanted to depict fishes
leaping out and slowly turning to birds and horses. But frankly, I'm not so adept in drawing forms of animals. So instead I formed an idea of a human sleep and the world we create in our dreams.

Sleep, for whatever time it be, is an escape from the real world, its problems, its
confusions. It offers so much of protection to emotional turmoils. Here, I have
pictured a human form in a womb form in a pool of warm, soothing, water - as safe
as being in the womb or a cocoon, unaware and unconcerned about the outer world.

The pool outside, in a lighter shade of blue, represents the fantasies that we
create in our dreams, with fishes and blissful lotus blooms. And fantasies take
flight, go beyound boundaries, which is represented by white doves/ birds taking
off from the pond.

But this sleep is as safe and as permanent as a water drop in a leaf, ready to fall to the ground and shatter. The ground here is in sharp contrast to the coolness of blue and green,
in glowing yellow.

I have used a spherical blur as we progress outside from the center of the painting.

Solitude

Lingering thoughts of the past that's deprived
To forget them - they're just shadows, grant me the fortitude
Its just them and my footprints which survived;
Let me be alone, for now, its me and my solitude.

An attempt to present 2 different angles to the same setting/ picture…

The footprints in the wet beach sand is always interesting - a poetic symbolism used and re-used in movies, photographs, books etc. A string of footprints going towards the long distant horizon, always gives a sense of loneliness, a mood to brood and introspect (what a cliché!).

I was fascinated with one film clip of the beach in top angle (Va va anbe from Agni Natchatram?! Not sure...). So decided to paint in the same mode…

The paintings as such are definitely not one of my best. I like the blue and white pattern of the waves, but they are not exceptionally great or whatever. But I like the mood of them. I guess I need to do a serious re-creation of this painting.

The first one is just a close-up shot of the footsteps alone.

The second one is a long mid shot showing sea birds, and of course our hero in a very contemplating mood :)

In love with flowers

Flowers are fascinating and they make great specimens for painting, atleast in Adobe.
The problem with painting with a mouse is that you can't get too much of detail - its painstaking and one needs a lot of patience, which I don't have. So reproducing shapes or symmentries (such as a flower vase or a pot) is difficult.

But on the other hand, you have thousands of colours and their variations to choose and use in your painting.

And flowers are just apt, given these pros and cons. You don't have to reproduce them to the complete detail, unless you're givng an extreme closeup of the flower. Anyway, a petal here might be slightly skewed to one direction and another petal there might slightly be smaller than the rest. But unless you screw it up, its very had to produce a bad version.

And flowers come in all colours. So I tend to paintain a lot of flowers. Many of them are my own 'dream flowers'. But I always like to copy them from a photo.

Fragrance in the Evening Air: I hope everyone of us would have seen these white flowers with a fantastic, mild fragrance, that grows in trees. The leafs are usually dark, deep green and are big and oblong. As with most white, fragrance flowers such as parijatham etc this too blooms towards the end of the day. I'm not sure if you can make out the flower from my painting, but you should have definitely seen this flower.

This was reproduced from a calendar photograph. I like the branch and the leaves better than the flowers as such. The whiteness of the flowers is too bright, could have dimmed it down with a ting of grey. The background could have been a bit more brighter. I have used a watery distortion so that the outlines look distored. My improvement: Definitely the leaves and their shadings.

White Secret - The first flower painting which I did using Adobe - another one of my dream flowers. Looking back, I have created a sterotype in flowers - white flowers in dark green backgrounds. This was those days when I was fascinated with the dry brush effect which gives a feel of an 'oil on canvas'. And also lightning effects.

Nothing much here - the paint streaks are nicely visible (I guess it simply accentuates the oil effect), there are some hue variations to the white. I had not attempted to create any 'masterpiece' (?!) here. But I guess its still charming, don't you agree?!

Colour Bursts
The advantage of using Adobe is that you can dabble with innumerable shades of colour - 'Intha colour pothuma' style. Imagine creating such colours using water colours or oil paints - you just have to mix colours in varying consistencies, check them if this is the colour you want and finally use it. And one has to be really careful in mixing the same colours again in the same proportion to maintain consistency thru' out the painting.

I don't have such hassles in using Adobe and that's why my paintings are lavish on colours. Bright shades of yellow, red and orange - these are some colours which I tend to use often.

My own Little Suns: One of my fascinations is to draw flowers to take advantage of so much colours and secondly they are easy. This one Was inspired by a wallpaper. No effects. And not much of effort too - very much unfinished - can still see white uncoloured patches, unfinished edges etc. I guess this was a total time pass painting and that I had too many flowers to colour.

F(l)ight for Peace: A butterfly flying out of a red core with dangling, 'ready to clutch' hands flys out towards a white flower, symboloizing the ever present struggle of man to find inner calm. OK OK, no more sermons on that - its actually time pass painting of mine, and I cooked some message around it.


Pumpkin Flowers: The first few paintings of mine in Adobe. A take on the pumpkin flowers that we use to adorn 'kolams' on Margazhi days. Surely, its such a naive painting of mine. This doesn't have any pretention to resemble the actual flowers. It looks like more like a floral painting on a wall. I like this one, for its use of colours.