Jobless in Hyderabad

              Oh...there was this interim period when I'd quit my job in Hyderabad and was awaiting my Singapore visa. For the first time in many years, I had whole days to myself when I did not need to run protein gels or isolate DNA.In fact, I had the time to indulge in things closer to my heart.

              University of Hyderabad, where I was at that time, (albeit in School of Life Sciences) had a wonderful library with an entire section dedicated to Art and housed wonderful books. I used to spend hours poring over those books, soaking in their sublime beauty, toying with the ideas projected by them, learning trivia about some art forms, photocopying the bits I wanted to carry home( there's always comfort in hard copy data, isn't it?) and thereby, creating a state of such artistic torpor, that to snap out of it, I decided to paint. I do have some formal training in art, having attended art classes in my school days, and decided that I just might start wielding the brush again.

               The first one I painted was reasonably ok.

                   


Since the first one was both about colors as well as an underlying theme of music, I added to it with these others.All of them are Oil on canvas.

               Then I decided to try a little variation in theme. So I painted this Krishna evoking the elements of Water, Air, Earth and Fire with his music.

                     Over the course of the next few months, I tried Acrylic as well. Though not as fluid a media as Oil, it is nonetheless a quicker media as it dries faster and gives a very glossy finish.
This one was done in one day and is one of my favorites.

                      Then it was time to use paper. Acrylic works pretty good on paper and can be nicely framed in glass. I decided to redo some of Jamini Roy's paintings. They have always been some of my favorite pieces of folk art.

                   


                      And why should watercolors be ignored. My art teacher, the late Mr Venkat, always revered water as the most difficult of all mediums as it leaves no other scope for the artist other than to be transparent in his expression. Water, being the most fluid of all mediums, and not as labile as oil, has its limitations as any flaw cannot be covered with a second coat of paint and when done immaturely, can leave a very sorry effect. Conversely, if done in the right way, deftly, minimalistically, it can produce a profound effect, at once ethereal and fluid, but also deeply impressionable. Frankly, I am a great fan of watercolors, yet am least adept at it. Have to practise more!! But where do I get hand made paper in Singapore??

         This one is watercolor on handmade paper. I call it simply " Jodha". Don't ask me why....:)

       I also made a sketch of this beautiful Lambadi Woman whose picture I found in a magazine.

         Now I must make sure to pick it up again. It's been 3 years, and I have not produced anything. Not even reproductions! Yet, on retrospect, those months when I was jobless in Hyderabad, indulging in amateurish art, spending hours crouched over my canvas, sometimes missing lunch without a thought, and without a need to keep track of time, fingers stained with paint and enveloped in a fine haze of fragrant terpentine oil, I had a real tryst with bliss.