I’ve been bought, I’ve been sold!

 

We had the opening of our exhibition “Jhaal Muri” last night and it was a great success.  A big thanks to Sal and Nabila from Radius and Art & Soul for the arrangements.  There was a large turnout and happily most of our friends were there to lend us support.  Lots of paintings and photographs were sold including four of mine.  The Group of Five feature in the photographs below.  Images of the work on display have been posted by ace photographer Anil, here.  And you can see more of my attempts here.  

Update : November 9, 2008 : And if you’re looking for more, Nabila has put up her photographs here.

Update : November 13, 2008 : Press : 1. Jhaal Muri : Dhaka street culture in focus – article in the Daily Star. It has been picked up by 2. Bangladeshi, Indian artists focus on Dhaka’s street culture – article in the  Zimbabwe Star, 3. News from Asia Daily and 4. The Bangladesh New Network, 5. The New Nation

Update : November 14, 2008 : Flickr set : My Jhaal Muri paintings on Flickr

        

       

At the Market

This is the kind of market I remember from my childhood.  While I cant cope with the bargaining that shopping in such markets entails, its great to visit one once in a while.  Recently went to Karwan Bazaar in Dhaka with two friends to take some photographs to capture the hustle and bustle, vivid colours and the vitality of such markets.

12″ X 16″ acrylics on Canvas Panel.  Photo ref copyright Anil Advani.  Used here with permission.

I want to break free

The words of Queens song by the same name have been playing in my head for a while now. I did want to break away from the way I was painting earlier. I didnt get to where I thought I wanted to be. Where I am now is more free (sometimes, like today) than before and I’ll be happy here for a while.

The title of this piece is “A woman’s work is never done”.  I’m at my sisters for a months holiday. She has recently had a baby boy. She also has a toddler who also wants quality time with Mummy. I see her on her feet all day and it seems to be almost all night. Everyday. It’s feeding, pumping, changing diapers, playing with the two year old, working and the list goes on. And she has help! This one is for all the women who look after their children, homes and also work. Hats off to them!

12″ X 16″ on a canvas panel.  Based on a Photo ref by Anil Advani.  Used with permission.

Running with the Bulls

I don’t normally post incomplete work here but I’m away on a longish holiday (back in Sep) starting today. Posts here might be irregular. Wanted to put up something that I’m excited about in case it is a longer break in between posts than usual. Hoping to finish this and do a few more in this series when I return. Will write more about “Running with the Bulls” with the post on the finished piece.

36″ X 30″ acrylic on canvas. This is based on one of the inspiring photo refs taken by Oochappan. Used with permission.

People watching

People watching while waiting for a fare.

10″ X 12″ acrylic on canvas.

Finding Beauty in Print – 2

“Jantra” (tool) is the result of an intense and satisfying printmaking workshop with Shahid Kabir held at UODA on May 30th/31st ( extended later for another 10 days ). Having completed the previous workshop just a week before gave me a headstart and it was exciting to take the learning a step further.

There is an exibition, Kormoshala Chapchitra Pradarshini, of the work produced at the workshop at Gallery Chitrak for a week, starting June 13th, 2008.

Update : July 17th, 2008 : I had been told during the exhibition that a buyer had booked my print but was waiting for a confirmation. Today I met the Gallery owner and he handed me the money from the sale. Thrilling I must admit. It is the first time that I have had money in hand from a sale.  This brings the count of work sold to 3. Starting November this year, I shall begin a concerted effort to sell my work online.

And if you want to know a bit more about 4 printmaking techniques – etching, woodcut, lithography and screen print, check out the excellent step-by-step animated demo provided by MoMA.

Lucien Freud – Take 2

As part of my efforts to improve I have been copying the works of some master artists. Lucien Freud is one of them. I’m drawn to this self portrait of his. You can see an attempt that I made recently and one made in 2005 side by side. And though they’re nothing compared to the original , inspite of seeing the mistakes, I liked them both when they were made. I guess my mind figures out what I’m capable of at a given point in time and gives me credit accordingly. I’d love to try this piece again after a year.

An artist and his muse

Jamal Ahmed is a successful Bangladeshi artist with 41 solo exhibitions to date. Pagla has been featuring in his work for many years now. With many artists you see a recurring subject, model or colour something they keep coming back to. Do you have one?

The reference for both these pieces have been taken by Anil Advani for his SoFoBoMo project and used with  permission.

Below I’ve tried a close crop of the digital painting made of Pagla. I’m not sure if it is better or worse.

Jamal 12″ X 18″ charcoal in my sketchbook.
Pagla digitally made using Art Rage 2.

Fair & Lovely?

We Indians, it seems, place a high value on fairness. Scan through a few matrimonial classified ads and you’ll see that a requirement that appears frequently, for a girl, is fairness. I’d thought that with our generation we would see this disappear but a recent dinner conversation reminded me that we still have a long way to go This goes out to all Indian ladies who continue to suffer the teasing and taunting of friends and family because they are dark complexioned.

In case you’re interested, links to a few articles/comments saying it so much better than I ever could. A Darker Side of Fair, Fair = Lovely, Bollywood delusions,

20″ X 24″ acrylic on canvas

Dalai Lama

Everyone seems to be discussing Tibet lately. Even my niece, who isn’t quite two, has been taught by her nanny to say “Free Tibet!”.

The reference for this piece is the cover of a recent issue of Time Magazine. 8″ X 10″ Pen & Ink in my sketchbook. I have used a white ink pen to recover from errors. Looking around for a grey pen to be able to use three distinct values in a future attempt.