Last day at the language school

I was taking French lessons every morning for the last four months. 

I finished the course last week and the test results are rather satisfying, must say. 

Love you guys! Merci à tous.....bisous.

Two Recent Features on Blogland: Thank you

I have been meaning to make this post for quite some time. 

As you can see, my blog posts have been suffering lately. 

Anyway, before resuming, I just want to share with you two links where 

my work was featured. Thank you so much you guys, both posts are lovely.

The Feature on Ghost's blog Clearnuance is in Italian, 

you can use the google translater to read. 

Ghost says that ''Clearnuance is a blog concerning images reflecting sensations''

Well I am glad that my portraits get a place in this rather interesting theme!

This is a beautiful post on Daiane's blog Sala de Ayurveda

all the way from Brazil.

The original post is in Portugese, so I put a link to the translated English version.

I am amazed at the knowledge and adoration for India

 and its ancient traditions in this lovely blogger's space.

Thank you both for the features.

I hope you guys are having a super weekend and hey, I will be back real soon with a post 

on request, a sneak peek into my books on art and design.

Check back soon ;)!

Love.

d. 

Flowers for you

The Sun is finally shining bright and keeping us warm and cheerful.

The flower clock is bursting with colours and 

the jet d'eau peeks from the back as the tourists take turns to pose in front.

The Geneva lake front has been beautifully tended to and 

every little corner filled in with colour.

The little red train goes around town and 

every once in a while you hear its bells ring!

These ladies are soaking up the sun at the lac Léman, just as everyone else.

..with my moleskin and the camera...

 to spend all day on lush green garden lawns was fun!

A friend brought us the most beautiful lilacs from his garden

..their perfume still lingering in the apartment...

This one is for you, my lovely, thoughtful readers 

who took time out to leave me notes as I was doing the html for the blog.

Enjoy the brilliance of spring!

Love.

dee.

Re-structuring blog

Do you like the three-columns template 

or

the previous two-columns one???? 

I am thinking....

'Shubho Naba Barsha'

''Durga with Ganesh''

 Pencil on moleskin

Today is Bengali New Year 1416!! 

This is what we say to everyone in Bengali:

''Shubho (auspicious)  Naba (New)  Barsha (Year)''

''Ganesha in the garden''

Pencil on paper.

The Fortune-tellers

  

Acrylic on canvas board

22cm x 14 cm each

Reference Photograph:

Photograph fromVaruniyer91's photostream on Flickr 

(click on the image to visit his photostream)

I have never tried this but will surely track down the nearest fortune-telling parrot

''show'' to get my own share of parrot-advice next time I go home!

For all of you who are not familiar with this strange,

 funny and very entertaining practice,watch this :

Feature on Aditi's blog: Thank you!

Aditi from Once upon a tea time says that she ''is always drawn to faces in a painting''. She has started posting a selection of work that she finds interesting and Aditi writes her perspective on these portraits. She just made this wonderful post  on the portraits that I do. Hop over to her pretty blog full of carefully hand-picked posts on design, art and occassionally, poetry! Thank you Aditi, your post was the first thing I read this morning and I just loved it! 

Etsy Update

Hola! I hope all of you had a great start to the week.

My French lessons are over and I am going back tomorrow

to school for a test and a last session with my wonderful teacher.

I have new prints in the shop; I was postponing a shop update forever, 

but I finally got them this afternoon and I have introduced a new 

'set of two prints' this time!

I am off to prepare for my language test :(((

hugs to big kiiiiiiisssss

dee.

Pensive Parakeet

Acrylic on Canvas Board

14cm x 22cm

(White border added to keep painting

 from blending in with the blog backdrop)

''This is the way I like to live''!!!

''Pink Lotus'' mini canvas (commission)

Acrylic on canvas 

15cm x 15 cm

Commissioned work

Elements that I was requested to try and incorporate:

''Semi aerial view of a lotus with all hues of pink, dew drops, blue background, leaves''

FlickR photographs that I found while on my little research

before starting work (click on the lotus to go to the corresponding 

FlickR page by birdyboo) :

I exaggerated some elements, but the colours are drawn from 

these, click on the imgage to go to birdyboo's photostream:

A great weekend to all of you.

Thank you for the prolific comments on the 'Lalita' post. 

On a personal front, pressure is mounting .... to go back to a ''real'' job, 

so I have to make some serious choices now. 

I don't see myself without my artwork anymore,

but I have to wait and see how this plays out. 

Love.

dithi.

''Lalita Sundari'' Commissioned Painting

I just finished working on this commission and must say that this is by far the most interesting and detailed painting that I have done. I was pleasantly surprised to recieve a request from Archana, who found me through Vineeta's blog feature.

She requested a rendition of Lalita - the divine form of the Ultimate Female Power ''Shakti''.

''...Leela is play and the concept basically means that all creation, life, Samsara etc is nothing but divine play....and Lalita is the embodiment of that divine play.'' 

A traditional depiction of this beautiful Hindu Goddess. 

David Frawley, in his book Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses, describes Lalita as having

''... the complexion of the rising sun. Sundari wears a crescent moon on her crown, which is sometimes figured as made up of her own matted hair. The mind is her sugar-cane bow and the 5 senses are her arrows, which under her power of awareness become instruments of bliss. Sundari shoots us with arrows of delight, revealing all the forms of creation as aspects of our own blissful nature of pure consciousness. Her noose indicates her ability to capture her devotees with her beauty. Her hook cuts off all attachments to outer appearances".

This was fantastic! I was thrilled! A subject so overpowering and studded with such intriguing symbolism and Archana's request was specific and detailed...

More from her emails: ''...Lalita means, 'She who plays'...So I think an important aspect I am looking for, is playfulness and fun. A swing...suspended from a tree in a beautiful forest. The tree has mangoes and your sweet parrots. Lalita is seated on the swing, her blue-black hair flying and framing her radiant face. She has her third eye open ...". 

'' ....Seated upon Lalita's lap is a little girl (human, so no 3rd eye), about 5 or 6 years old. She clutches the ropes of the swing joyously.  Liquid brown eyes, big red bindi.''

And the child on Lalita's lap?: 

Drawing from this description by David Frawley: ''.....the entire universe exists for the delight of awareness which is the play of the divine mother. Creation arises in joy, and returns to joy. We are but transient figures in her eternal play, who have yet to understand the source of the energy that moves us.'' So, Archana added: '' .....the little kid in Lalita's lap is actually us - you/me. Both Lalita and the child experience the joy of the swinging in unison. When they are together, the child ensconced in her loving lap, they are in divine oneness, and experience bliss in unison.'' 

The image below was sent to me as a reference for her dress, etc. :

After several detailed email exchanges later, this is the sketch that I had:

Archana was happy, I got a 'go-ahead'!

We agreed on a few other details: Lalita would have a nose-ring. I was sent this photograph of the renowned Carnatic vocalist, the lovely M S Subbulakshmi with her traditional nose-ring as a reference:

As you can see, all the elements of this painting were given to me in a platter, I just had to put them together hoping to be able to do some justice to this amazing composition. A weekend later, I had 'Lalita Sundari' , charming in all her glory:

Mixed Media (Acrylic on Collage)

25 cm x 40 cm

 

''Sundari represents the moon as the visible image of delight. This nectar of the moon or the mind intoxicated by divine beauty is called SOMA in the Vedas. Sundari is the experience of the flowing Soma or nectar-bliss. In this regard she represents the delight of the divine self as he consumes our mind (Moon) and digests all experiences as pure joy. ''

''...for this particular painting, I don't want Lalita to be depicted physically

 as a young girl of 16. She can be a mature beauty,

but still shine with that  16 year-old free spiritedness.''  

The saree is inspired by the traditional hand-woven Kanchipuram silks

and the swing designed along the lines of a hanging Lotus. 

The blue background stands for the sky 

and I wanted this to give us a sense of timelessness, infinity.

What's more, I had finished just in time to be able to share with her 

this work on the eve of her Birthday! 

Thank you Archana for this beautiful composition and subject, 

for giving me 'Lalita'. 

Clara is adorable!

     

She wears my favourite colour, has the most wonderful stories to tell 

and she shares with us her mom's recipes from the Great Depression.

Clara's breakfast video was featured on youtube today, so I am guessing

some of you have watched this already. 

When I saw her, I fell in love with her!

I watched her entire selection and can't wait for her to make more.

Clara's website: GreatDepressionCooking

Enjoy!

''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.