"Welcome- year 2013"

May 2013, this blog will complete five years of its existence. While I was going through all the previous 32 posts, I enjoyed following the journey of a 'self-taught' artist. What does the phrase 'self-taught' really imply? Is it possible to distinguish between the teacher and the learner in a situation where the learner is the teacher and vice versa? Through a series of trial and error one acquires the ability to transform a blank canvas into a work of art. I suppose all artists, whether they have received formal education or not, go through this process. The outcome becomes a work of art only if the artist is satisfied with his or her creation. Every artist, big or small enjoys this ability to create something the way he or she wishes to see it and this success helps him or her to move on.
I returned from India on 5th January and have been indoors most of the time. After spending almost 18 years in Singapore, all by myself from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm in this gloomy, wet, cold UK weather and just a few hours of daylight would have surely caused depression if I did not have my best companion and my passion to keep me active throughout the day. In fact, this weather has compelled me to read, think and explore and I am really delighted to spend so many hours in educating myself. Would like to make the best of it before the weather changes. I must give a little account of how I spend my days.
I borrowed a few art books from the library and would like to discuss a few points I found worth noting down. I am a person who doesn't like to follow so many do's and don'ts when it comes to art. It spoils my spontaneity and I lose interest in my work. I have been lucky to find 3 books written by 3 water colour artist from UK and each one has broken away from traditional water colour instructions. These are:
Atmospheric water colours by Jean Haines, Breaking the rules of water colour by Shirley Trevena and
Paint with freedom,expression and vitality by Gerald Green. They have distinctly different and unique styles. One could visit their websites to view it.

http://www.shirleytrevena.com ;  http://www.jeanhaines.com ; http://www.ggarts.demon.co.uk

It is always interesting to read each artist's perspective, interpretation and technique. One thing they all have in common, is the ability to drive out fear while dealing with water colour. It is a difficult medium to work with but real fun if one can conquer it.

I have also been watching some interesting TV programmes on art. The society of all artists, SAA along with the Painting and drawing channel conduct TV shows where artists demonstrate there techniques and conduct lessons for viewers. UK is a gold mine for someone wanting to pursue water colour. It has quite a few water colour societies and the standard of the work of water-colour artists is high although most artists adhere to traditional water colour methods.

I have also been reading the blogs of other artists.

I have done a few works after returning from India. In this past six months, I have allowed myself to play and explore and have produced plenty of water colours and a few acrylic works. I need to be mentally more settled and stable in order to focus on any particular theme or style. Perhaps, I need to take out the juice from all the knowledge I have gathered from various resources in these few months and cook something really appetising.

BTW, I usually cook in the evening because that activity does not require daylight and I try to take out one hour daily for yoga practise. On the whole, I have a busy schedule and an interesting one too.

The following works were done after 5th Jan.

Kerala fisherman-water colour on paper 

Play -water colour on paper

Chikoo- water colour on paper

Flow- acrylic on canvas each measuring 16" x 30"

Pt.Ravi Shankar- charcoal and water colour
on paper measuring 18" x 22"

Year 2012 offering stimulation for more practice

Holi

Parvati

Durga

Dancers- water colour on paper
 measuring 24" x 36" 

Since the time I arrived in Reading, I have done at least 25 new paintings in water colour including a portrait done with coffee. I am constrained to use only water colour and coffee due to my present nomadic life style. The portrait ‘anger or anguish?’is a random face from crowd in India, but the expression is entirely my own imagination. I find coffee an excellent medium to work with. It provides results similar to charcoal but the technique used is more like painting. Since my present accommodation happens to be a serviced apartment, I cannot indulge in working with charcoal, a medium I love. Coffee is a great alternative !

One can realise from the variety in the collection shown below my unsettled frame of mind. Nevertheless, art helps me to remain happy in this situation. As I look back at the conclusion of the year 2012, I can sum it up as stimulating enough for me to evolve further as an artist.

Chickens at Robin Hill farm

Robin eggs at Robin Hill

Just hatched- Robins at Robin Hill

City of joy

Sixtieth birthday flowers

2012- unpredictable happenings !

Year 2012 has brought a bag full of surprises and unexpected happenings to my life and as such, I didn’t have much time for art in the first three quarters except my live art in Kolkata. My sis-in-law was hosting a multimedia show called 'The Gitanjali Story’ in Kolkata on 8th Jan, 2012 at ICCR. To commemorate Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary, she had held a more elaborate version of the same show in London in 2011 and had used some of my paintings as projection. She requested me to do a live art on one side of the stage during the show. She wanted something related to the theme to be done on a three feet by four feet canvas visible to audience in the last row. The duration of the show was an hour. I wasn’t very comfortable with the proposal but finally agreed because I like challenges. I used acrylic paint for the work. It was a totally new experience for me and I was completely engrossed in my work, enjoying the audio while I painted. My experience at the en-plein-air workshop attended this year in Wayland was of some use as it helped me to learn to work fast in a limited time. The title of my work was a famous poetry by Tagore-“ where the mind is without fear and the head is held high ”.  Here are a few pics and a video clipping of the show:

That’s me painting

Poster with another painting done by me

The projection is one of my paintings

The final outcome

I returned to Singapore mid January,2012 from our yearly Kolkata trip and had to pack-up and leave Singapore end of February to return to Kolkata for good. I had started enjoying my role as an artist with the entire space in my apartment and the time[ sunrise to sunset- monday to friday ] to myself and was mentally bit disturbed with the thought of giving it up and return to Kolkata. I spent 37 years of my life in Kolkata since the time I was born but that Kolkata was very different from the Kolkata I was returning to after 22 yrs. At this point I was offered a job as a chemistry teacher in a reputed school in Kolkata. I did not refuse the offer as I thought of it as a blessing that would help me to reconnect to the city. I taught chemistry for 17 yrs in Kolkata and left the city as a teacher in 1990 and was quite happy to return to the city as teacher. After I left Kolkata, I taught in secondary schools in Mumbai and Singapore till July, 2001. We were constantly on the move from October 2001 to June 2005 and as such had to quit teaching in schools on a permanent basis. I took up some volunteering work related to teaching during this period. Simultaneously, I was searching for something more permanent than volunteering, something I would enjoy as much as teaching. I realized that creating something in the form of art has been my constant hobby and passion all through my life and I started painting again from 2004. I took a few private lessons from Mrs. Cynthia Ho in 2004 and later on joined NAFA[ Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts]-Singapore for short courses. Between 2006 and 2010, I took part in a few group exhibitions in Singapore, completed a certificate course in Western painting from NAFA and never thought of going back to teaching chemistry again. 

I took up the teaching job in Kolkata with the understanding that I would work only one term. I set up my studio in one of our apartments and was looking forward to returning to my role as a painter at the soonest. 

Life didn’t take the path I had imagined it to take and right now I am here in a new country trying to cope with the approaching harsh winter. Once again I have to get used to a new place, new culture,re-organize myself and start painting under a different set of conditions. I don’t mind it. I kind of enjoy this lack of comfort as it forces me to create something different under the constraints imposed on me. We arrived in Reading, UK on 2nd September. I was lucky to get an apartment next to a river. It is a pleasure to observe the play of nature and the change of season, something I always missed in Singapore. When we arrived, the trees next to the river were full of green leaves, stooping towards the river as if to gaze at their reflections in the water. In these eight weeks the color of the leaves changed from green to yellow,orange and maroon and now they are completely bare. The temperature has been as low as 0C, it has been very gloomy on certain days and raining 24/7, daylight has become a valuable possession. Yet, I am happy to experience this.

I have been concentrating on water colour for the past few weeks and I intend to carry on with water colour while I am here. A few of my recent works will display my random thoughts very much in tune with my present status. I can see myself able to focus better as I am settling down.

Before we came to Reading, we spent two months in Wayland, MA. After many years, we were enjoying as a family and I concentrated in cooking for my loved ones.Be it replacing tropical vegetables with those available in Wayland to cook something new or try out different materials for creating art, my experimenting keeps me going wherever I am. It was fun to experiment with coffee as a medium. My son used to extract espresso using a machine from freshly ground beans. I used that espresso coffee to do the following paintings:

And of course, just like my other visits to Wayland, I did spend time with my grand daughter and her friend, teaching them how to make their own paper dolls and dress them. They enjoyed it a lot and carried on designing beautiful dresses for the dolls made by them. It was a pleasure to watch them making the dolls and I have to admit that some of their ideas were simply gorgeous !

Immediately before we left Singapore, people wanted to buy my art works and I sold most of the works I had exhibited in my solo exhibition Timeless Tagore. I am happy to have left my signature in Singapore.