Garden of the five senses

A couple of weeks back, we visited Le Jardin des Cinq Sens

(or the Garden of the five senses) in the medieval town of Yvoire, France.

It was a glorious day, we took the boat from Geneva and sailed for

a little over 1.5 hrs to finally get to the 700+ year old town.

'One of the vegetable gardens surrounding the 14th Century castle in Yvoire was transformed in 1986 and opened to the public.Within this enclosed space the paths, pool and fruit trees were kept and taking the five senses as a theme, a plant maze was created using the techniques and symbols of the Middle Ages.'

'The hornbeam hedges and the espaliered apple trees

of the Jardin des Cinq Sens ®

divide the garden into four rooms, each representing

one of the senses of sight, touch, taste and smell.

The fifth sense of hearing is represented by the sounds of birdsong and water.'

'The labyrinth is, in fact, the castle’s former kitchen garden,

restored according to the art of medieval gardens:

maze of the five senses, espaliered fruit trees, old roses,

hedged cloister with medicinal and scented plants, fountains, birds…'

As you explore the labyrinth, narrow hedges lead you to

'The Garden of smell' and these yellow flowers

that smell like jasmine greet you.

The Garden of touch is filled with texture, the most unusual geometric shapes

and pods and thorns and buds.....

'The Garden of sight' has magical shades of blue, mauve and pink....

It is said about this garden that if you revisit the labyrinth,

it'll never be the same experience. It constantly changes colour and

promises to be feel like your first visit each time.

'Un jardin qu'il faut decouvrir lentement avec une âme de poète'

~A garden that needs to be discovered with the soul of a poet~

Hope you enjoyed, I couldn't short-select the snaps so posted almost all :)

Tweet Tweet....

Hubby came home with a package he picked up in the mail,

wrapped pretty in a brown-paper - full of texture

and beautifully stamped with little birdies in teal :),

all the way from Daly City, California........

my orders from Birdnerd are here !

I fell in love with Chelsea Groves' birds the moment

I bumped into her shop, while randomly browsing through Etsy one morning.

The bright blue ink is hand screen printed on a heavy linen,

the European Starling is a splash of blue in my

red-brown-earthy-toned living area.

The Cedar Waxwing is a beautiful piece in a very Indian red.

The item description read 'Introducing bird art that you can hug!'....so true.

Even the tags threaded around the little birdies look so organic and cute:

I am totally loving the back of the plushies just as much,

printed fabrics in springy colours loaded with more texture.

'One of the things that makes me happiest in the world is when I am outdoors and a bird perches close by on a branch and silently stares at me before flying away.

It's as if all of nature has stopped for a moment and said,

"Well, hello there. I see that you exist.'' '

- Chelsea, from her website

She has an exhaustive collection of her artwork on FlickR.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet resting on our CD rack/library at the moment......

You can read all about the kind of work Chelsea does

and her techniques here. Her paintings, collages (which she likes to refer to as

''painting with paper'') are so intricate and full of delicious detail.

I especially like her linocut prints,

this print on Thai Unry paper is one of my favourites.

I had to make this post as soon as the parcel arrived,

our home is tweeting a happy tweet right now.

Thank you Chelsea :).......

a bit of a birnerd myself, I feel totally pampered today.

Kalighat Patachitras

Kalighat Parachitras are one of my favourite folk-art forms from India.

Rooted in Bengali themes, their styling and details

have inspired so many artists over the years.

Scroll painters or 'patua's originally hail from rural Bengal,

artists that breathe life into narrative scrolls in the midst of,

often, hostile life situations and rather limited resources.

Here are some Kalighat pats from an exhibition going on at Tejas Gallery in Kolkata:

Ganesha

''The name “kalighat pata” is applied to a class of paintings and drawings on paper produced by a group of artists called ‘patuas’ in the neighbourhood of the famous Kali Temple at Kalighat , in Calcutta in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The art activities of these ‘patuas’, which shared some common technical and stylistic characteristics, developed into an industry, turning out a great number of pictures to meet the popular demand of pilgrims and others visitors to the city. The artists selected as their themes for delineation popular Hindu deities, incarnations and saints, epic and Puranic anecdotes, historical events, incidents of daily life, social skits and different species of Indian fauna.

In recent times, one artist belonging to a family of patuas, Bhaskar Chitrakar of Kalighat, is reviving this style. Inspired by his grandfather, he has decided to create paintings in the same tradition. The artist is very young but the style is old.''

- Aban Desai, Tejas Gallery, Kolkatta

Maa Durga

*SOLD*

The Goddess of the temple 'Maa Kali' is the subject of many of the pats.

The next painting is really close to my heart;

resembles the calendar art depictions of Goddess Lakshmi

that I referred to for my earlier Lokkhi paintings.

I am collecting this one, she will reside in one of our kitchen walls :) !!

*RESERVED*

Religious themes often inspire Kalighat paintings and

the next one is a rather cute rendition of two of Bengal's most celebrated

saint duo: Nimai-Nitai of the Vaishnava traditions of Bengal.

All of these are painted on handmade paper with vegetable dyes.

The next is another one of my favourites, little tota perched on a saadhu.

''The charm of the Kalighat paintings lies in the fact that

they captured the essence of daily life''

In the next painting, we have a zamindar with his professional ear-cleaner :)

The 'henpecked' husband (!); humour has always been characteristic of these paintings.

The Kalighat tigers and cat-with-prawn paintings are ever-popular and

I find them - stylistically - brilliant.

If you are in Kolkatta, do not miss this exhibition for many more

delightful kalighat pats.

[**Bhaskar Chitrakar's works are available at TEJAS Gallery, 11 Mayfair Road,

(Opp Ice Skating Rink), Kolkata 700019.

Ph:+91-9830049825.

The gallery is open from 12.30 to 7.30 daily except Sundays & public holidays.**]

Here is a video that by Tara Books that showcases scroll-painting beautifully.

Tara books used scroll painters to illustrate their book on Tsunami.

That such a beautiful art is now being referred to as a dying art-form is unfortunate.

The artists in the villages struggle to hold on to their work,

often finding it difficult to afford the paper and materials required to make the scrolls.

Pat-painting has empowered, and still, is empowering many rural woman,

who continue to churn out colourful narrative pieces that

often address social issues and even help spread awareness.

I dedicate my post today to all the patuas of Bengal, past-present and future;

especially my ladies who continue to bring to us such delightful work

and sit down to paint at the end of each day of being a mother/wife/home-maker.

first few captures

Last Sunday, we had a musical 'baithak' (बैठक in Hindi means lounge,

in this context means an informal function where musicians get together and sing/play),

at a friend's place in the quaint Swiss countryside.

The Geetobitan (referred to as 'Boi' or 'THE book' by Bengalies),

the collection of poems/songs by Rabindranath Tagore.

The harmonium is the traditional /popular/favourite instrument for most

Bongs when singing any genre of folk/Tagore's songs.

Arnab's been playing the sitar since he was about 6-7.

He has got back to playing after almost 17 years

(since he performed at one of his college events)!

These last few pics I took at home at one of his riyaaz (practice) sessions.

Here is a short video I found on Youtube

of a beautiful bandish in raag Hameer

rendered by one of the finest Sitar players of our times:

Ustadji Shahid Parvez-ji

A little update from my Etsy shop is that I have some new listings,

take a look here. Hope you're having a good week :), keep well.

New friend

Will post photos soon :)

~Have a great week ahead~

Maa Saraswati

'Maa Saraswati' (Goddess of Knowledge and Learning)

Medium: Acrylics

Mount: Canvas Board

Size: 22cm x 27cm

Varnish: Matt + Glossy

Commissioned work.

This was the sketch for the painting.

Here are close-ups of the detailing:

'The Goddess Saraswati is often depicted as a beautiful, light-skinned woman

dressed in pure white, often seated on a white lotus

(although Her actual vahana is believed to be a swan), which

symbolizes that she is founded in the experience of the Absolute Truth.

Thus, she not only has the knowledge

but also the experience of the Highest Reality.

She is mainly associated with the color white,

which signifies the purity of true knowledge.'

- wikipedia on Goddess Saraswati Iconography

The requirements out of this rendition for the collector was

not a heavily religious undertone, but an imagery depicting Saraswati Maa

seated in the lap of nature, playing the Veena in the full bloom of spring.

In the traditional depictions and descriptions of the Goddess,

she is believed to be adorned with pearls.

I have added a very Bengali touch to her jewellery with the Gold earrings

in the shape of, and named after, 'Kaan's or ears.

Though this one is a small painting, it has a lot of detailing.

The Veena, for instance required some research in getting the structure right;

a majestic instrument indeed.

The varnish, to my mind, has added more depth to the painting

in terms of how it reacts to light differently in certain areas than in

some others. I have worked with both matte and glossy varnishes this time.

You can see what I'm talking about here:

This is one of the only two paintings I've been working on last month.

Personal life and social commitments had completely taken over.

This piece was requested by family friends

who wanted to gift this for their sister's PhD thesis defense,

which was around April end.

Originally timed for then, I have taken much longer to finish this piece :(

However, I am really happy with the end result.

This forced break may have extended some deadlines,

but I think I've got back to work with a fresh mind and renewed energy.

For all of you who have written to me over the last couple of months,

including mails with commission requests,

I am really sorry for not having responded yet.

I'll take up all my pending responses and try to answer your requests by and by.

Many thanks for your patience and love.

Missed you all - a LOT and am SO glad to be back :)!!

Femina feature

Easter holidays were spent with friends, sumptuous Bengali food and adda!

While I am still recovering from all the fun we had,

had to blog to share with you a fabulous update.

Chandana Banerjee (writer, journalist and CEO of

Pink Elephant Writing Studio) interviewed me for Femina recently.

The article has been published in the Spotlight section,

am totally loving the way they have called it 'Painting her love'.

I am a happy girl today!

Thank you Femina and Chandana for this precious gift :)