Cityscape series III, IV, V, VI

I have been running crazy with my Cityscape series. I have tried out palettes that I have never before tried- like the last painting in purple and orange. I have ideas blocked out for some 5 more canvases and then I think I'll wrap it up and call it a day. Till then, it is City time at Bramasole.

Bramasole news

Spent an awesome weekend with my 4 year old in my studio. She had some work to finish ( she is on a dinosaur series) and I was putting the final touches to a work that had come back ready from the framer's.

I have been working on my Cityscape series ever since I saw some amazing photos of New York city which a friend had shot. I was very inspired. So I started on canvas number one, which was a city by the river. The keynote of the painting was reflections. That one canvas made something in my head go boom. Three more canvases followed, all strikingly similar but with subtle changes in mood and light. Am now expanding the series to include cityscapes at dusk and twilight. Let's see how the inspiration holds up...

If this isn't happiness, I don't know what is :-)

Whispers in the Wind

This piece, in Acrylics, is in the collection of Mrs. Nandana and Mr. Varun Sarin in New York. Varun told me about how he loved fall colours- the oranges and the yellows contrasted against the blue and steel grey of the season. Varun and Nandana got married this fall. So I thought why not make them a piece that encapsulates the essence of the season they got married in. The result was Whispers in the Wind.

Wish you a long and prosperous married life, guys. Thank you for sending me this beautiful photo of the framed work. When ever you look at the wall, think of me :-) God bless...

Inside Bramasole

I got a few cane chairs and some tables today. My studio has become my chill out zone now. Yes, the quilt on the left is my work too. Am doing up the place bit by bit. So it is up from just easel and paints to a quilt, some rugs, pillows. Curtains tomorrow...

The other day someone asked me why I had named my studio Bramasole. It rhymes scarily with a very very popular cuss word. Besides, why an Italian word for a studio in a corner of Banaswadi? Bramasole means"to yearn for the sun" and just like the villa in the movie became the turning point in the writer's life, my little Bramasole inspires me to do stuff I have never attempted.

I must have seen Under the Tuscan Sun some 10 times. I loved the movie. Even the far fetched implausible romantic bits. So feel good, so uplifting. For me, it was all about life giving you what you always wanted in forms that you never expected. It is a movie about rising again, keeping the faith, staying optimistic.

My daughter paints with me too. And here is her first work in the studio. In this "astrapt", you see a red tree and a " yellow stegosaurus" hiding behind it. One of the green patches is supposed to be a tiny T-rex biting the yellow dino's behind. Ah! And the blue patch is her version of "splatter painting". My very own Marla Olmstead!

Summer Night City- Cityscape II

Productive day at Bramasole. Have gotten into the habit of painting a few hours a day now. My Cityscape series is slowly unfolding. Am having fun experimenting with knives and textures. Bramasole has set me free in a lot of ways, really. I mean, I am able to boldly express when I am in that space. I'm slowly crossing over into figurative abstracts from being a pure Impressionist for the past 15 years...

Cityscape 1

Am dabbling in abstracts these days. Or "astrapts" as my 3 and a half year old says. So far so good. Here's number 1 from my cityscape series...

New beginnings

My studio finally opens! And I've started work on an abstract series. Watch this space :-)

Big Ambla

After a one year break to be full time mommy to my baby son, I've started painting again. Just finished a large abstract of someone I have known for a long time. My mother. With a twist of course- this is how she looked at my age. I am a huge fan of Modigliani. Hence the slim neck and angular composition. As for the palette, well this painting is for my bedroom which is in a sea blue-green theme.

My daughter, who held the palette for me at times and most happily washed my brushes, was the first one to make note of the fact that the painting was of "Ambla", as she fondly calls my mother. The moment I finished the preliminary coat, she rushed up. The canvas was almost double her size. She said " Mamma! That's Ambla. Big Ambla!". Reminded me of a story I had read about John Lennon. Apparetly his son Julian showed all his nursery work to his dad without fail. One day he came back with a sketch of a little girl with diamond shaped eyes. He told Lennon that it was "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds". The sketch inspired the famous Beatles number of the same name.

I decided to call my canvas Big Ambla after Samarra's name for it.