A splash of Blue !!

Today I decided to use the colour blue apart from being a personal favorite it is also a colour that is associated with Lord Krishna. The legend goes that Krishna was the one who popularized the second day of the festival of Holi where he would drench his gopikas with water and colour. 

Holi series-Blue, Oil on canvas "9 x 6"inches                                     © 2011 Nayna Shriyan                              

To this day, the holi celebrated in Lord Krishna's village of Vrindavan is the most unique. Legend has it that Lord Krishna visited Barsana the village of Radha on the day of holi and teased her and her friends. The women of the village took offence and chased them away with sticks(lathi) . To this day the tradition is followed, men from Vrindavan visit Barsana to play holi and they are beaten with sticks, in the presence of the villagers, nobody gets hurt though!! As I was creating this painting today, I had this mental image of seeing colour splashed on walls, roads every which where after Holi, and tried to achieve that effect. I certainly had a lot of fun creating this painting and it has made me look forward to the big day even more :)

Colour me Yellow !! the Holi series

                 On the 20th of March this year, the whole of India will be drenched in colour!! On this day we celebrate the festival of Holi, if you have never heard of this festival before, then join me this week as I take you on a colorful journey!. This week leading up-to the festival of Holi, I will be creating one painting each day ,with only one colour per painting. I will also be writing about some of the many traditions that abound in this diverse country of mine.

Holi series-Yellow Oil on canvas "8 x 8" inches                    © 2011 Nayna Shriyan

In Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and also my hometown, Holi, like quite a few other states is celebrated in two parts on two days. The first day is the puja or the worship day, this day we light a bonfire called 'Holi' and offer coconuts, flowers and of course the most important 'Puran Poli' to the holy fire. The second day is when everybody drenches each other with colour. This tradition of lighting 'Holi' each year is centuries old. The story or legend as one might take it says that there was once a King called " Hiranyakashyap" who was of the demon clan and an extremely proud and powerful king. He thought himself to be above the gods, whom the humans dared worship and so he had declared that anyone that worshiped "Narayan" also know as Vishnu would be punishable by death. As luck or fate would have it "Hiranyakashyap" had a son called Prahalad . Prahalad was an  ardent devotee of the god Vishnu and would keep chanting " Narayan Narayan' throughout the day. This angered the King no end and he tried many ways to kill his son, but Prahalad would be saved by the gods each time. Finally the King's demon sister 'Holika'  who had the boon of being fireproof offered to sit with Prahalad on her lap in a huge lit bonfire. But as the gods would not allow Prahalad's death, it was Holika who burned to death while Prahalad stayed unscathed!!

Thus each year the bonfire is lit and it is called Holi !! This particular bonfire stand for the victory of good over evil.

               I have started this series with the yellow colour, because for me the bright yellow colour always symbolises the begining of spring, which is what the month of March stands for. Though traditionally in India Holi marks the begining of the summer season. Well lots of 'yellow' sun anyways :) I am thinking of using the usual primary and secondary colours, but would love to hear about any other colours that would look good in this series, it is the festival of colours after all !!!

From Dishes to Bowls!!

           Having decided to de-clutter, I was going through some of the junk in the kitchen, when I happened upon some old copper plates. These plates are usually used in worship rituals, but  I found that we seemed to have a large number of them, lying around, (way more than required)!! Guess someone goofed and went on a shopping spree!! 

Rose bowl , vitreous enamel on copper               ©2011Nayna Shriyan

             Being a metal-artist to the core, my first thought was can I use these? Of course the natural answer was -Bowls! I decided to convert the dishes to bowls, while I had previously been working on similar projects with my gulmohar bowl and blue and pink bowls, I wanted to take these to another level. So I filled them with some pitch and before I knew it there were two flowers beaming up at me :)The bowl with the white flower was inspired by a delicate white flower that grows in my little balcony garden, and the second one a beautiful single red rose!.These two bowls are different in the sense that I have repoussed them before enameling them.

White flower, vitreous enamel on copper     ©2011 Nayna Shriyan

Here's how they look post enameling.  So what do you think? Should I have left them repoussed or does the colour bring out a better look in them?Although this way they can be viewed differently from both the sides. I am planning more bowls but I am waiting to hear some opinions before I go and repousse them !