''Amrita Devi'': new video and painting

Last week, I stumbled upon this beautiful photograph (on Claude Renault 's) FlickR of a ''Bishnoi'' woman from Rajasthan. I was intrigued enough about these rural women to do my own little www research. This is what I found. 

The Bishnois can be called the first environmentalists of India. They have been religiously following rules of environment and wild life protection and conservation since 1485, when environmentalist saint Guru Jambeshwar made it part of the Bishnoi religion by incorporating two cardinal rules: "you shall not cut green trees", "you shall be compassionate to all living beings". 

It was incredible to read the life story of Amrita Devi and how she started the ''Chipko'' movement. The video narrates the story. I painted her using Claude's photograph as my reference.

''Amrita Devi''

Acrylic on stretched gallery wrapped canvas

30 cm x 50 cm

The gold shines and the change of light make sthe painting look different,

here is a snap in full bright day light.