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.