May you all grow

Wishing you all a great year ahead. I hope it brings you growth. Material, intellectual and emotional. May you all break free from the lure of darkness and take the stairs that leads you towards light. Keep the faith.

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

And I would also like to thank you all for being the great motivators that you always have been and having more faith in me than what I have in myself.

BIG THANK YOU TO ALL.

Title - See you soon

Size - 24 x 17 inches

Medium - Acrylic on stretched canvas

Inspiration - Devdutt Pattnaik's writings

Khairi

Khairi was a angry, confused and petrified cub when she was handed over to the forest conservator of Similipal Late Dr Saroj Raj Choudhury on October 5, 1974 at Jashipur. She was aggressive and was gnawing her claws at everything. But Dr Choudhry knew exactly what to do. He imitated the sound of a mother tigress and within no time the little cub was feeling at home. Thus startred the legend which were to be told and retold in every household in Odisha. It was a legend about forest conservator who dared to risk his life and went beyond the call of duty for a tigress he considered his very own.

Dr Choudhry would record each and every move made by Khari and all the knowledge that he gathered is used today for the conservation of the king of the jungle. And the pug mark based method he invented is used today for tiger census.

Khairi passed away prematurely at the age of six and half years and Dr Choudhry passed away soon after that in grief. But even today one can hear Khari roar in the forests of Similipal for a legend never dies.

This painting is dedicated to Khari, the princess of Similipal.

p.s. You can watch some rare footage of Khairi with Dr Choudhry and Nihar Nalini Devi (foster mother of Khairi) here.

Title - Khairi - Princess of Similipal

Size - 22 x15 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper
Photo courtesy - Satyesh Naik

Cityscape

Finally I managed to paint last Sunday and I was feeling on top of the world. This was done en plein air at Ulsoor lake. There was kayaking and canoeing competition going on on the othet side of lake. I could not see it from where I was sitting. Probably I had to buy a ticket for that.  LOL.

A two week gap without my brush in hand seemed like ages. But I am getting back now. :)

En Plein air @ Ulsoor lake 11 Dec 2011

Size : 15 x 11 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

p.s. I have started working on my second ever (first ever was done two years back) acrylic work. I'll share it when it is done. I am excited because I dont know how it is going to turn out. Here is the line drawing of this. And it is already titled 'See you soon'.

Sketches

Most of my watercolor sketches end up getting lost as they are done on bits and pieces of paper. So some time back I bought some paper, cut it up and made a watercolor sketchbook so that these sketches, studies do not get lost. And guess what!! It has woked big time.

I thought of just quicky posting some of my watercolor sketches, which have later gone on to become bigger paintings. These are about 7x9 inches in size.  Mostly they were all done within half an hour to get a tonal/color composition going. And painting for each has already been posted in my blog before. I am sure it will be interesting to see the sketch and compare it with the painting. And it will be interesting for me to know what you think.

 Click here to see the painting

 Click here to see the painting

 Click here to see the painting

 Click here to see the painting

 Click here to see the painting

 Click here to see the painting

Outdoor works

I have not been painting since last two weeks and it is starting to get to me now. Firstly I was away and now when I am back there is loads of work piled up and it is getting difficult to manage some painting time. Till I paint my next piece I thought I'll post some of the plein air works I have done recently. Hope you enjoy them.

 At NGMA, Bangalore

 At Museum Canteen, Cubbon Park, Bangalore

At Berhampur island in Chilika lake, Odisha

Grass Eaters of Chahala

Title - Grass eaters of Chahala

Size - 15 x 22 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper
Reference Photo by - Satyesh Naik

Similipal is a wild life sanctuary in western part of Odisha consisting of tiger reserve and national park. It has also been declared as a biosphere reserve by govt of India and UNESCO added Similipal to its list of biosphere reserves in 2009. Of the seven ranges one of the ranges in Similipal is called as Chahala. A friend of mine who is a keen wildlife enthusiast and a photographer while on a birding trip got to stay inside Similpal at Chahala. He has written quiet an essay on his trip and it can be read here. This painting is based on one of the many excellent photographs he has taken during the trip. The photograph can be seen in this post.

The photograph itself was really good and had captured the atmosphere very well. I just added some deers here and there in the painting to make it a little different from the photo. But I guess the photograph is perfect and it is impossible to improve upon perfection. :). So I thought I'll give a catchy title. Something like a movie. Guns of Navarone, Gangs of New York, Prisoner of Azkaban types you know.. :) And the composition itself was so non-text book. Gray for top 2/3rd of the painting and yellow for the bottom one third. Surely does not sound like a great color composition. But then sometimes I think we need to go with our intuition.

p.s. For the next few days I'll be having very scarce or no internet access. I hope you guys do not miss me much during this time. LOL.

Faith

Title - Faith

Size - 11 x 15 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

A typical Hindu household most definitely has a Puja room or a Puja place in a room. Puja translated to English roughly means worship. Idols or photographs of Gods and Godesses are placed in this little space and everyday in the morning they are bathed, decorated with sandal pastae and flowers and offered fruits and sweets. Lamps are lit up, incense sticks are lighted and little prayers are sung in the glory of the Gods. And after this ritual only everybody goes about doing their work. This ritual everyday in the morning inculcates one very important qualities that we seem to be losing in modern life. Faith. From faith comes patience and empathy which surely makes the world a little better.

The other day my mom was preparing for Puja. I opoened the window of the room and sunlight came rushing in to create this beautiful scene and my painting was born.

Matteo Coffee

Title - Matteo Coffee

Size - 15 x 22 inches

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Trying out a different subject here. The other day on one of painting outings I spent some time sketching in a coffee shop. This painting is based on one of the sketches. Somehow these coffee shops have a weird kind of lighting. It creates a kind of haze all around. It was a big challenge to try and get that feel. Dont know how much I suceeded, but it was worth trying.

My Desktop

Title - My Desktop

Size - 10 x 14 inches

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Hi all. I hope you guys are in perfect health. Here it has been raining quiet a lot and only since this Sunday we got to see the sun after a long time. That meant I had to paint at home itself. So I came up with this idea of painting what I paint with. So here is my desktop. And yes it is very much an active desktop. LOL.Wondering why the paper is missing from my desktop? I was painting on it of course.

Short spell @ Church street

Title - Short Spell @ Church Street

Size - 22 x 15 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Bangalore has a very strange weather pattern. In one day one can experience 3 different types of weathers. Hot scorching sun in the day followed by rains, followed by chilly nights. And since 2 weeks we are having rains almost everyday. In short spells though.. Rains in November..November rains.. Reminds me of Guns and Roses. :). Anyway here is to Bangalore rains.

Shopping @ UB City

Title - Food court @ UB city

Size - 15 x 22 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Photo - Ramesh Jhawar

Hi everyone. First of all I wish you all a great and uplifting Deepavali. I hope all of you have a great time celebrating this festival. And as usual I am running late here too. Not yet done my Diwali shopping. So I thought I'll put a painting where somebody at least is shopping. LOL.

Depth of Fields

Title - Depth of Fields

Size - 15 x 22 inches

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Nandi hills is a small hill near Bangalore and it is a very frequently visited place too. Last weekend our outdoor sketching group had been to this place for sketching. I did a few watercolor works there. And this one was done back in the studio using one of the sketches as a reference. 

I had heard one of my photographer friends mention 'Depth of Field' of a camera. I just used that to name this painting. :)

Eevening on Ganga

Title - Evening on Ganga

Size - 20 x 30 inches

Medium - Watercolor on paper

This painting is not something I usually do. Firstly the colors and the feel are very melodramatic. Putting a wash of pure crimson and vermilion takes a lot of courage on my part. Secondly its a full sheet painting. And this has to be done standing, which I do not really prefer (Its not such a crime to be lazy.. Right!!!). And managing a full sheet is much tougher than doing a half sheet painting. But anyway this was a good stretching I got. Literally. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Work in progress

Title - Work in progress

Size - 14 x 21 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

I really could not decide what these guys were doing. But assumed that they may be doing some work unlike me. So I decided to call this one 'Work in progress'. This is a completed work in progress. LOL. Have a great weekend friends.

Rajdhani @UB City

Title - Rajdhani @UB City

Size - 11 x 15 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Photo courtesy - Ramesh Jhawar

Last month my artist friend Ramesh Jhawar visited Bangalore and we had a good time to catch up and going around Bangalore. We even did some little painting together outdoors and visited National gallery of modern arts (NGMA). One one of the days we had our lunch at this place called UB City. Its a famous landmark building in Bangalore. Ramesh had taken some pictures of this place and I painted one of them. This is part of a big a food court and I guess this restaurant is called Rajdhani.

I have also been facing some problems in leaving comments for your blog posts. I hope this problem gets solved soon. I just wanted you to know that you all have been making great paintings and I have been enjoying them.

Have a great weekend.

Outdoors and Indoors

Outdoor painting is very exciting to start with. But it is also a great dampener by the time I finish the painting. I generally get caught up with all the details and end up describing the scene, rather than capturing the mood of the place in my outdoor paintings. And sometimes though I start well I get carried away towards the end and spoil a painting just in the last 5 minutes or so. But it is a great study for painting the same scene back in the studio and also a great learning experience. But on the flip side the studio painting may lack the spontaneity of the plain air one. Here I am sharing some such examples. Hope you enjoy it.

Title - At Cannt Station (Plein air)

Size -  14 x 10 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - At Cannt Station (Studio)

Size -  22x 15 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - Morning at Ulsoor lake (Plein air)

Size -  11 x 15 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - Morning at Ulsoor lake (Studio)

Size -  15 x 20 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Thank You

Thank you everyone for supporting the cause of Flood relirf operations for which I was trying to raise funds. Thank you for your wishes, encouragement and finally a BIG THANK YOU to the people who bought my paintings. A sum of Rs37,500/- was collected by sale of paintings and the same has been donated to UBSS.
Here is the list of the paintings that were sold and the people who bought them.

 Mini Jain and Manoj Nahar

 Niraj Ranjan Rout

 Rituparna Mandal

 Haripriya S

 Haripriya S

 Satyesh Naik

 Irfan Shaikh and team

 Ravindra Karnad

Vijayalakshmi Krishnamurty

Art for a cause

Odisha or Orissa, lying in the eastern part of India has always been susceptible to natural calamities like flood, drought, cyclone. Just as the state was recovering from the great floods of 2008, it has again been hit by floods which has caused even more destruction this time around. More than half the state has been affected by floods. Over 2 million people have been affected. Official death toll as of today stands at 19. Many people have drowned and many have been swept away. Those who are alive have lost everything and have taken shelter on places like national highway. According to official reports 3,505 villages in 19 of the 30 districts have been affected and at least 21,816 houses have been damaged. But the worse is yet to come as the fear of epidemic breaking out looms large. If you just search for 'Orissa floods 2011' on Google you'll be able to understand the amount of destruction that has taken place.

Flood relief operations are on in the state by government and non government organizations and they are facing a serious crunch of resources. The current situation requires all of us to come forward and contribute towards the flood relief operation in whichever way we can. And you can lend your support to this cause by buying one of my paintings. I have put 40 paintings of mine up for sale for this cause and all the proceedings collected from the sales will go towards an organization working at ground zero for the flood relief operations. A group of earnest young men here in Bangalore working towards the cause have identified UBSS (Utkala Bipanna Sahayata Samiti) for the ground level relief operation. UBSS, an NGO with proven track record in relief operations, has got many accolades for its tremendous commitment and dedication for this kind of activities. This NGO operates in all the districts with local volunteers. More information on UBSS can be found at http://ubssseva.org.

So here are the steps how you can help towards this cause.

1. Select the paintings shown in the link, that you are interested in. Please click here to see the paintings.
2. Send me a mail at prabal.mallick@gmail.com with the details (name and link) of the painting.
3. Make sure the subject line says 'Painting for Orissa floods'.
4. Then I reply back to you and you make the payment to me.
5. You get the painting and the certificate of authenticity.
6. I'll publish the details and receipt of all the money collected in a future post, so that you know that your money has been used for the right cause.

Please note that the paintings have been priced at a much lower rate, so that it becomes affordable for you. The price range of the paintings is Rs 1000/- to Rs 8000/-.

In the end I would again appeal to all of you to come forward and contribute towards this noble cause.

Afternoon at Puri

Title - Afternoon at Puri

Size - 15 x 11 inch

Medium - Watercolor on Paper

Jagannath temple in Puri is one of the most popular Hindu pilgrimages in India. The temple is really really huge and it looks really big even when seen from a good distance. The following piece is from wiki.

'The huge temple complex covers an area of over 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2), and is surrounded by a high fortified wall. It contains at least 120 temples and shrines. With its sculptural richness and fluidity of the Odia style of temple architecture, it is one of the most magnificent monuments of India. The main temple is a curvilinear temple and crowning the top is the 'srichakra' (a eight spoked wheel) of Vishnu. Also known as the "Nilachakra", it is made out of Ashtadhatu and is considered sacrosanct. Among the existing temples in Odisha, the temple of Shri Jagannath is the highest. The temple tower was built on a raised platform of stone and, rising to 214 feet (65 m) above the inner sanctum where the deities reside, dominates the surrounding landscape. The pyramidal roofs of the surrounding temples and adjoining halls, or mandapas, rise in steps toward the tower like a ridge of mountain peaks.
The main shrine is enclosed by a 20 feet (6.1 m) high wall. Another wall surrounds the main temple.'

So you can probably guess the enormity of the temple. Anyway I had done 3 sketches before this (One pencil and 2 watercolor) and was not very sure about doing the painting. And then I happened to watch a video clip of Joseph Zbucvik, where he says, just have faith and go for it. So at 11 at night I put my faith in Lord Jagannath and went for it. I finished it by 2 AM in the morning and yes at the end I was happy. By the way I was using Waterford paper for the first time and I liked it.

Childhood's End

Title  - Chilhood's End

Size - 15 x 11 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Two weeks back I saw this picture with three tiny kids headed for school in local newspaper. What caught my attention was their overfilled and over sized school bags. And it started a chain of thoughts and then this painting was born. It is called Childhood's end. I hope you are able to empathize with the perspective of this one. Have a great week ahead.

A farmer's life

Title - A Farmer's life
Size - 22 x 15
Medium - Watercolor on paper
Photo courtesy - Satyesh Naik

Sharing a song for you. I came across this song just a couple of days back. I do not understand the language (There are about 30 odd languages in India. I know only 3 languages). But the feel of the song is very melancholic and I just loved it. Later I found out that it is about a farmer in debt. And hence sharing it here.
Patras Karan Ki..

Something different..

Title - Salandi

Size - 11 x 15 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper
Photo courtesy - Satyesh Naik

Well as the title suggests its actually not something different, but something that I attempted in a different way. It is a landscape after all. But I was attacking the paper more. In fact I generally do not attack paper while painting, but here I was doing that. And I was making an effort not to move away too many times from the painting to see how things are going. I would really appreciate if you leave your honest comments for this one.

Kondh Village

Title - Kondh Village
Size - 10 x 14 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper
Photo courtesy - Satyesh Naik

Here is the painting of the sketch that I had posted in my last post. It is a tribal village inside a wildlife sanctuary in Odisha. The blog post about this sanctuary can be seen here.

Satyesh, thanks for the pic.

India art gallery Pune is running an abridged online version of my solo show for some days under emerging artist's section. A big thanks to them. The exhibition can be seen here.

I hope you all had a great weekend. I had a good one too.

Hadagarh, NGMA and a sketch

Title - Dusk at Hadagarh
Size - 11 x 15 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - Plein air at NGMA
Size - 14 x 10 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Watercolor sketch of a tribal village

When a painting has a lot of area unpainted it is always a temptation to fill in something. I got tempted too but I think I did not go. Somehow I managed to stop and let it be. So I was actually quiet happy about that.

This photo was taken from my friend's blogpost on the dying Hadagarh sanctuary in Odisha. In my painting I wanted to see the river touching the horizon and hence I increased the height of my viewing point for the painting.

Last Sunday I had gone out to NGMA with my weekend drawing club friends to do some plein air work. The biggest difficulty was to get a place where you could sit in the shade of trees and paint a nice view that had enough light.

And lastly I am posting a sketch in preparation for a painting.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day.

Coexistence

Title - Coexistence - II
Size - 22 x 15 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - Coexistence - I
Size - 22 x 15 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Nature is truth. Probably absolute truth. Culture is a subjective truth. Culture is man made. It is anti nature. Nature has to be destroyed for culture to thrive. And when the side effects of culture becomes unbearable nature strikes back. It destroys culture. But a new culture flourishes again. Nature and culture are opposing forces. But at the same time both validate each other. Both give meaning to each other. Nature and culture co-exist. The balance of power keeps shifting, but they exist together to define each other.

Black, White and Brown

Title - The Brown Gai
Size - 14 x 10 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - The White Gai
Size - 14 x 10 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - The Black Gai
Size - 14 x 10 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Gai in my mother tongue means cow. It also sound like 'guy'............