Portraits from pictures- bringing Rajasthan home.

© Nayna Shriyan

Knowing that I keep hunting for references to work on my oil paintings, my friends keep sending pictures from either their personal collections or their friend's , recently my friend sent me images of a friend's trip to Rajasthan.In the collection was an image of an old Rajasthani man, wearing a very traditional turban and the most interesting wrinkled face I had seen!!
Although I am not a trained painting artist, (having taken up metal work in my college ), I love experimenting and teaching myself to paint. When I saw this image, I knew I simply had to test my skills.

Here is the original image  and to the left is a capture of  the very first layer of paint, here I have just blocked in the major tones. This is the first time that I am working with a tiny double zero brush to make doubly sure that I get in not just all the fine details of this rustic Rajasthani face, but also hopefully the expression on his face, that seems to say that he miles away in his thoughts!!

" Till Gull ghya god god bola" Wishing all a Happy Sankranti !

Till Gull !!

Today we celebrate 'Makar Sankranti" here in India The day the sun enters the sign of Capricorn( also known as 'Makar') This festival is known by different names in different parts of the country, in the northern regions it is commonly call 'Lohri' and down south it is know as 'Pongal'
Essentially a harvest festival, it has many other things associated with it, for example the flying of kites. Kite flying takes on a mad craze with people of all ages, and not just kids, during this time. Many competitions are held and the state of Gujarat in the west had a statewide kite flying festival held, with everybody competing in creating and flying the most biggest, largest and innovative kites they could come up with!

         Here in Mumbai, Maharashtra, we too fly kites but the one thing that has stayed with me as a childhood memory is the phrase" Till Gull ghya god god bola" translated it means eat sweet til gul ( sweet made of sesame seeds and jaggery) and speak sweet words !! To me it makes sense to use this phrase not just on this day but on a daily basis. In our rush to get ahead, we seem to forget these simple thoughts.
I would like to wish all my readers a Happy Sankranti and of course " Till Gull ghya god god bola"
Not just for today but for the entire year :) !!!!

PS : if anybody is interested in making this sweet little preparation here is the recipe :)

The Gondolier

 The Gondolier , Oil on canvas, 18 x 24"
©2010 Nayna Shriyan

Continuing my love affair with the  palette knifes I decided to work on another landscape, but this time I also wanted to experiment with some architecture in the painting. While I worked with palette knifes to render the slightly choppy look of the water, and the vibrant colours of the sky, I decided to work with brushes for the architectural details. The boats too I worked with brushes as I wanted to create a contrast in the textural treatment of the water and the boats.
  Although the gondolier himself occupies the foreground of the painting, the vibrant colours of the sky reflecting everywhere from the water to the buildings form the dominant element.
All of the people that have seen this painting seem to have their own favorite element, someone loved the sky, another person loved the realistic treatment of the water, while a third fell in love with the gondolier himself!! What do you think stands out most in the work?