From where I left

Its high time I reflect on my activities in the past few months.
I arrived in Wayland on 22nd June 2016. There is some magic about this place. Is it the sound of silence and being surrounded by nature or something more than that? Whatever it is, I am happy to feel the urge to write again. I will start from the point where I left.

The month of October was so beautiful! It was such a pleasure for the eyes!
"Do all beautiful things appear to be more beautiful if they are short-lived?"

November went too fast because our stay with our children and grand daughter was coming to an end. 

Halloween costume for my grand daughter

Diwali celebration

We returned to Kolkata on 1st December and before I knew it, I was drawn into a series of social and other kinds of commitments. In the midst of all that, visit to Bulu Imam's home in Hazaribagh was indeed a memorable experience. This was my first exposure to Khovar and Sohrai art.

             

Bulu Imam and his Son, Justin

Rukmani Devi and her art work

The home of Bulu Imam, the Sanskriti Centre, which he created in 1993 along with the museum of tribal art and culture, and the Tribal Women Artists Cooperative is worth a visit for anyone interested in the tribal art of that part of India. I was immediately reminded of the aboriginal art I saw in Australia but I had no idea how these were linked. Below left- Australian aboriginal art, right- Tribal art of Hazaribagh.

          

I got my answer when I met Bulu Imam's son Justin. Please click here to watch the video about these art forms narrated by Justin Imam. Reconnecting with rural art of India continued through December 2015. Nomadic mystic singers of Bengal, known as Bauls performed for us at Dilruba, our house in Santiniketan.

Year 2015 ended with Rabi Baul singing 'moner moto pagol pelam naa'. 

Wayland farmer's market and New York Coffee festival

Since 1st June I have been in USA with my children and my grand daughter. My daughter was waiting for me to help decorating her new apartment, so I brought some artefacts from India including my original art works. I stayed with her for a few days and touched up some of my earlier works to suit her place. This was a completely new style I tried in acrylic and I was quite happy with the outcome.

I have been accompanying my grand daughter to the MFA[Museum of Fine Arts], as well as the Museum of Science in Boston. She is presently pursuing home schooling and we performed experiments on effervescence and acid-base indicators with the help of materials available in the kitchen. While she attended art workshops for homeschoolers every friday, I enjoyed the pleasure of viewing the museum collection. At the Museum of science, I had the privilege of viewing an excellent exhibition put up by PIXAR showing in details the creation of animated movies.
My grand daughter was invited to play cello at the Wayland farmer's market and that gave me the idea of doing a demonstration cum display of paintings done with coffee. Once again I picked up the brush and soon became busy.

 

The above works were displayed along with some of my earlier works at the farmer's market, while I painted the egg plants belonging to the stall next to me.

This is when I came to know about New York coffee festival and submitted the following work for the coffee art project. My work, 'freindship'[above-right] was selected amongst 36 art works to be displayed at the festival.  Finalists-coffee art project-New York coffee festival 2015  

New activities in Chennai and Singapore

I returned to Chennai around the 3rd week of September and our annual festival, Durga puja was round the corner. It is an event which takes place for 5 continuous days and is an occasion for the local artists and artisans to display their talent. I have not attended the Durga puja in Kolkata since 1990, but had the opportunity to participate in the festival in Mumbai, Singapore, UK and this year in Chennai.
Immediately after the Durga puja, I was invited to an old age home in Chennai to have a craft workshop with the ladies. It was just before Deepavali, so we decorated lamps made from clay. We also made greeting cards with motifs made by the art of quilling.

While all this was going on, the author Swapna Mirashi called me from Singapore and asked whether I would be interested in illustrating a children's book. I knew that would be fun, and considering the uncertainties in my life, I opted for digital illustration. That was the start of my adventure into the world of two seagulls, Olive and Jay......

1st November,2014 we moved back to Singapore. I continued with the book illustration. It was fun to create pictures based on a story line. The author of the book happened to be in Singapore and that made things much easier for both of us. It was yet another learning process for me. I used GIMP for most of my illustrations. I was in Singapore till middle of April,2015 and the book was published in May,2015. The book is available in Singapore. 

While in Chennai and Singapore, I continued with coffee paintings. The warm earth tone and its versatility as a medium makes be go on experimenting with it.