Rangeen Rajasthan

Bright colours have always held a fasciantion for me for as long as I can remember. Like a little child, even today I can't take my eyes off when I see little shops and stalls selling bright, colourful wares in a huge variety of hues. I can't resist walking in and taking a peek at all that's attractive and glittering !!!

In this respect, trips to Rajasthan were such a treat. Living in a dry arid dessert landscape, over the years these Rajasthanis have developed colourful traditions that defy the monotony of the dessert land. I love the way the bright colours are infused into their lives and their land. A riot of colours is evident in practically every aspect of their culture, be it their costumes, handicrafts, art forms, architecture, homes, bazaars, animals, and also food.

 Here are a few sights that had a range of vivid, psychedelic hues which had me drooling.

In our country even the camels look bright and beautiful.

A colourful tent, where a colourfully dressed woman rents out colourful costumes. Howz dat?

Palace opulence with stained glass.

So much colour, wonder if anyone ever has a dull day!

Shilpgram Mela

Mela colours!

Puppet colours!

Charcoal Blends

Charcoal is one of the oldest form of art material and painting medium. Mostly used for sketching potraits, and making rough drawings. Charcoal has a spontaneity and responsiveness that is vey welcome when you are in a mood to do a quick sketch. As compared to pencil sketching even the best HBs, 2Bs, 4Bs and so on cannot compare with the versatality and depth variations that charcoal offers.

Ever since a artist friend introduced me to charcoal, it's been my best art material. Some handmade paper, a charcoal stick and some good imagination. And there you have a great piece in a jiffy!

I created some bastar figures using charcoal.

Lots of charcoal paintings have been done before. So what more could I do with charcoal to develop an original style? When you need to think hard, its tempting to chew the pencil at hand. But if it's a charcoal pencil you're holding, then you'd better think twice before taking a bite or nibble. It was certainly more advisable to reach for my thinking cap instead for that one elusive brainwave!

I am ardent fan of the more ethinic traditional Indian paintings. I thought about what different could  I do? I mixed in a bit of the kalamkari effect. So here is where my very own charcoal blend style emerged. The figure is inspired by the sculpture of Eklingji, the ruling deity of Mewar.

After a brief tryst with black and white (or black and yellow) my lifelong romance with bright colours was not to be forgotten. I had this itch to experiement with some unconventional medium, while never letting go of the charcoal. With a glossy, burnt sienna coloured handmade paper, some more kalamkari(penwork) in red, glass paints for the translucent effect, and acrylic white for the pearl effect, and my next charcoal blend came into existence.

"Divyangana" is the name of the above painting, named after my neice. It means a celestial fairy. An artistic impression created with my inspiration from female deity forms and bronze statues.

Talking of painting and deities transports you into a world of meditation. When I say meditation, do any buddhist chants come to your mind, or ears? Well, it was inspiration that came to me. With thoughts of peace, relaxation, purity, white lights, golden auras and floral tributes. I still held on to the charcoal, got out some metallic gold paint, and here was born another charcoal blend, "Nirvana".

Miniatures -My first love!

Miniature paintings are my first love and association with Rajhasthan. The beauty and the grace of this kind of traditional painting style has never failed to fascinate me. With a flair for drawing and painting, since many years I have always tried to capture the style, the figures and the beauty of these paintings. Some of my amateur pieces hang on the walls of my mother's home. My initial paintings reflected some of the colours and themes, but practicing the technique is definitely the way to perfection. This painting was done on a piece of plywood, using acrylic colours and a reference of an existing miniature (my amateur style).




Another one was done on paper, using watercolours and the miniatures theme.

Although the figures came out all right, the artistically beautiful faces were something I needed to work on.
Recently I jumped at the offer when a friend refered a miniature painting class. 2 kids, joint family, full time job, family commitments and commuting distance didn't deter me from joining the weekend classes. I dragged along my mom (and originator of my painting genes) to the art classes. And what a blissful time we had. Without using any references, I put to use my sketching and conception skills to come up with a series of 3 miniature style paintings based on the theme "Shringar"


Dr. Pradhan, who was conducting the classes is a veteran on miniatures and traditional painting styles. The first session he explained about the history of miniatures and almost transported us into another era, with his Indian artisan perspective and narrative style. In susbequent sessions he conducted a workshop where we were taught the complicated process of preparing the paper, fine brushes, burnishing, tracing the sketch, working with and mixing mineral colours. A diploma in fashion design can come handy in sketching perfect figures of women for miniatures. But valauable lessons were learnt on face painting techniques. This is the first of my Shringar series, which I completed in the workshop.



Using the same theme, subsequently I completed the remaining two at home.

More about my fascination with miniatures is mentioned in my blog post at http://manishamago.blogspot.in/2008/09/state-of-blissful-oblivion-and-now.html