Hi folks!
Hope you are all keeping well and staying cool this summer. I have a couple of updates from my studio in Strathmore:
1. Charcoal compositions from my mind
Previously, I used to compose my pieces through observations from life or through photographs. I would start with a composition that exists in reality and alter it using Notan studies (black and white sketches). For example, for commission I worked on last year, I started with the photograph:
and then I created Notan studies to play with darks and lights:
to create this piece:
However, I wanted to play with the composition more and push myself to create compositions that are difficult to find in reality. So I started to create charcoal studies prior to searching for references. I used Indian miniature paintings as prompts for some of these studies since they have "greedy" compositions. They like to fit everything into the picture frame and sacrifice perspective if necessary.
For example, here is a miniature painting from the Mewar school dated 1750:
I used its composition as a prompt for this charcoal composition of my piece "Night Train at Deoli":
Here is the finished painting:
2. Magic Realism
I am also drawn to the genre of magic realism in literary fiction, with novels like Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Beloved by Toni Morrison.
In his lectures on storytelling, Salman Rushdie explains that surreal elements work best when they are deeply rooted in reality and used to “intensify” or “heighten” an emotional truth. For example, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, there is a moment when a character shoots himself and his blood flows across the floor, under the door, into the street, across the road, and into his mother’s kitchen, where it stops at her feet. Although blood would never behave this way, Gabriel García Márquez uses the image as a metaphor for the news of a son’s death reaching his mother.
I have started to play with surreal elements in my own work. For example, my piece "Tiger in the Tunnel" is about the final encounter between a railway stationmaster and a man-eating tiger:
For the tiger, I used the form of a tiger suppressing an elephant at the Konark Sun Temple in Odisha, India.
For the stationmaster, I used a form I found in an Indian sculpture depicting a god killing Death.
3. A Studio Experiment
Here is a sneak piece into one of my studio experiments. This was a quick sketch using soft pastels on newsprint. I loved how smooth it felt and will definitely be using this medium more.
Guess What?
This July my work was actually in Toronto for the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair!
I had so many great conversations and sold a few pieces too! If you missed me, don't worry! My pieces are still available online on my website or through the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair site.
Im so grateful for the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair's Art Encounters Program, which made my participation possible through a Travel Bursary. The Art Encounters Program is supported by the Lindy Green Family Foundation, TD Ready Commitment, Element Event Rentals, and individual TOAF donors.
Finally
Here's a list of books Im currently reading or just finished.
The Histories by Herodotus
Ethical Fragrance in Indian Art and Literature by C Sivaramamurthi
Ibn Khaldun: Political Thought by Ibn Khaldun
Man and his Symbols by Carl Jung
That's all for now!
Until next time,
Keerthana