Wooden Projects

Wooden Projects


A Mother's Day gift

Started with a woodburned, well sanded and prepped wood. Student added his drawing

Radha Krishna Madhubani painting

 

Continuing my exploration in the series of Madhubani paintings. I have played with colors and details and enjoyed the Garba/ Raas-Leela theme very much. A celebration of lovely fall season (Sharad Navaratri).

The Art of Madhubani - a humble first attempt

Shiva Parvati

Much has been written about the history and the origin of Madhubani style of painting. I am hardly in a position to introduce this art form, as my one and only exposure to it was quite a few years ago in Ahmedabad, a place quite far away from Madhubani, from where this art form originates.  As a first year design student, I had visited a craft fair, and there I had had an opportunity to see artists from Madhubani making these paintings. I fell in love with the simplicity and the vibrance of this art form. Its colors and motifs are a celebration of life itself.

But, all these years have elapsed since that visit. I have, in the past made many half hearted attempts to create anything close to what might be called Madhubani painting. But somehow I was never satisfied with the result. In my quest for a perfect work of art, I had overlooked the deeply meditative quality of the practice of creating Madhubani with  intricate lines and the interplay of textures and colors. Very recently, however, I came across this wonderful blog by Crazy Lassi . How very inspiring her work is! She also has simple tutorials for creating Madhubani designs. Here is my first humble attempt.

My World - Handmade Paper and Ink

Paper and Ink 4" by 11"

I have been missing in action for a long time. No excuses to offer, except perhaps the lame one, " I was not inspired enough!" I know, really lame. But no matter. Hopefully, I have caught second wind this time. So, with a glazed look in my eyes and a longing in my heart, I was looking through my portfolio (from the good old days, when I was young and feckless) and came upon a research project about the art of the Warli people, a tribe that dwells in the state of Maharashtra in India. Through the use of simple shapes - lines, triangles, circles mainly, they are able to tell their story. The art form is not religious in its essence, but more a narrative and a celebration of the Warli people's lives- the weddings , and births, and even deaths. The art shows how intertwined with nature man's life is. In all their work, one finds a joyous feast of trees and birds and animals from their surroundings. Such simplicity in the art form is breathtaking. It's funny how we spent a whole semester in Graphic Design trying to simplify any given from from nature using as few lines as possible. And here is this lovely art form, done by the tribal women of Warli, with no "formal education" in design...

This is my attempt at using the technique to portray a narrative...A celebration of being a part of two worlds...the one that I left behind, and the other that I live in currently. As an immigrant, my mind has spent many hours comparing and contrasting the two cultures- keeping my old home as beautiful and noble as ever while coming to terms with the new culture I found myself in. For a long time, my old home came up better and lovelier, the people more loving and warm and generous. Perhaps, I was not yet ready to let go of that part of my history and move on and live the life I was in. I cannot say when I realised that underneath all these beautiful contrasts of cultures, we humans are all the same - with the same desires, hopes and dreams. We feel pain and grief and joy...and it does not matter what part of the world we belong to...it is the fact that we all are the same....Two worlds then came to be just that - different yet one...because I see myself as a part of the vast community of people bound together with hope and love.....

Guest Bedroom Needed the Rest

An afternoon of not much busyness, a stencil lying about and some long forgotten paint rediscovered- all of this comprises the recipe for a much enjoyed and very easy project. In anticipation for a dear friend's visit to my humble abode, I am preparing the guest room. So without much preamble I present to you the before and after pictures.

The Blank Slate

As many of my readers know, I am the master of planning all my proejcts down to the last detail (hahaha) and so the work proceeds flawlessly to its intended completion (not). Well for this particular project, I just eye balled the midpoint of the wall and proceeded to stencil. But you see the devil being in the details, and since I had overlooked the devil, it reared its ugly head time and again and slowed me down. So I have had to improvise as I went, measuring and drawing lines and adjusting the stencil just so inorder to achieve the desired effect. Oh well! I never said patience was a virtue of mine.:-)

I spy the stencil on the floor

Well hopefully, all my mistakes are hiding well. I am satisfied with the progress. Can't wait to finish this one.

Much progress is made

 My favorite part - the metallic letters on the wall. A subtle contrast between the busy design on the wall and the message. 

The Rest is details

 I pronounce the room ready to receive guests and I hope that it would be a place for rest and comfort.

A touch of red

"Parting Ways" acrylic painting - 11"by 14"

I did as I was told,

I served and sang and dipped and bowed. 

I was told that you love me with my faults and all

That you were the keeper of my soul.

And I, in my naivete believed that that which was outside of me,

That which I did not seek out to see in me-

the strength to face my destiny come what may.

 In waiting for you , it withered away.

And now I have not you , nor me

 I writhe and cry and rant and rave but now I see,

that I am the only one to set me free.

Wall Wears Chevron Stripes

Finally it's done folks! I did it-chevron stripes on the game room wall! I had been mulling over how to achieve this look with as little an effort as possible. I believe in conserving energy people. I have been inspired by zig-zag-walls on offbeathome.com.  What a terrific project without all the laser level-juggling and chalk lines going nuts! I had the paint and I had the requisite brushes, rollers and frog tape, but as is usual with me - no patience for intricate measurement to draw the grid. But I was raring to go.  As I was shuffling through my mind for tool for the lazy painter also known as yours truly, to grid making on walls - I happened upon an 11" by 14" canvas. Perfect! Without further ado, I launched into drawing the grid on the wall with a soft pencil. You can tell, I am big on planning a project. :-) But in my defense, I did put it on paper to see how it might turn out. Here is the picture.Observe the detail and complex calculations........

Materials:
$7 oops paint from Benjamin Moore
Rollers
Paint tray
Frog tape( I can't recommend it enough)
Canvas or cardboard box or something to use as a measure to make a grid on the wall.

So I got to work. The canvas grid was easy to do. Then it was time to stick the frog tape across the diagonals to make a zig zag pattern. The most important thing is to get it really well adhered to the wall surface, so as to minimize the bleeding of paint.

Taped up and ready to go

Oops paint! here I come.I will spare you the pictures of my self painting the stripes. I depend upon your future visits for the survival of my blog. :-) But here is the work in progress.

Finally the wall wears stripes!

It is done, the painting I mean. Time to meditate and ponder the slowness of time it takes for the paint to dry. And here is the final result of all the work.

One more view.....

I am happy with it, if I do say so myself. What do you think? Please do drop a line. I would appreciate it very much.