Saturday 30 November 2013

WELCOME to CITY OF JOY "KOLKATA"

Was making a "Welcome" for someone special, thought of sharing this with you all.
I love handmade paper, they have texture ans hence a character of their own. I cut it into shape

Then I made a pencil sketch.


It's a double flap card; the top flap has the image of bengali married woman with eyes down and the top flap opens up to show next flap with the eyes open to Kolkata.

Love the water colour medium to work with...

Ta-da!.. done :)

close

open

"Welcome to Kolkata"
This is my "welcome" to all of you
Come and cherish the rich culture and life of Kolkata!

Thursday 14 November 2013

Drama on T-shirts

I went to the market once and found two fluorescent bright colored high neck full-sleeved T-shirts. Any mother would agree the how useful are such Tees for the evenings and start of winters.
Imagine  blank Tees mean................fresh canvas...
Yellow yellow dirty fellow
sitting on a buffalo!
funny, strange, eh!?
but a bright sunny yellow happens to be one of the choicest colour of my child

I saw
I dreamt
I drew on paper
I liked
Now its on the T

Whenever you want to embroider or appliqué  on Tee or any woven material, remember to leave ample cloth on sides of your embroidery so that the fabric is able to stretch while wearing and taking off.

You see all is not embroidered.
There are mushroom tops and thunder that I painted.
Rest all is simple  stitches...


Have you watched Ratatouille movie with your kids? remember this scene...


Turn the Tee
Why should only one side of Tee say a story, let your back/front all speak for themselves.
The sun on sunny Tee
A road with houses and trees
Aarotrika and Adhrit playing near milestone...

These appliqués are made of one inch to two inches square or small pieces of left over clothes from my earlier stitching ventures. Adhrits' Tee here is a piece of printed flannel clothe, left over from my son's dress (blue flannel night suit with teddy printed on it). So is the sun.
and so on and little stitches here and there completing the picture...


This bright green just wanted me to make a hill side with grass and wild flowers.
So here are Aarotrika and Adhrit riding up the hill to the apple tree on their tricycles...

See the apples are cheap red buttons, rest is small pieces of clothes appliquéd  and some simple stitches...

The other side is paint and ribbons...

My darlings modeling for me...

Monday 11 November 2013

Shubho KALI Pujo and Happy Deepawali

The English calender is a solar calender and Hindu calender is a lunar calender. There always are some variations to time. Everything has some plus points. This year we celebrated Kali Puja on Saturday night 2nd November 2013 and Deepawali on Sunday night 3rd November 2013.

The night before the Kali pujo we lit up "Choddo-pradeep" and eat "Choddo-shak". "Choddo" means "fourteen/ 14"."Pradeep" is diya or earthen lamp. "Shak" is Bhaji or leafy greens.
Since childhood I remember going to market and neighbouring kitchen gardens in search of fourteen different types of lefy greens. Be it spinach, pumpkin leaf, bottle gourd leaf, potato leaf, bengal gram leaf, cabbage leaf, bathua, cholai, laal/red bhaji/saag, methi/fenugreek leaves, makai/corn leaf, sarso/mustard leaf....all edible leaves have to sum up to fourteen to cook up a dish for night for everybody in husehold to eat. The search is fun.
After the dusk time puja/prayers we lit up 14 pradeeps in respect to our last late fourteen generations or Purvapurush.



We again went pandal hoping...
Kali Devi, a form of Parvati/ Shakti. When a monster was not being killed by anyone and was tormenting people around Devi Kali came to rescue and killed the monster and went on killing all sinners. Her appearance was scary and anger went out of proportions and then calm her down Lord Shiva lied down in her path. She in her went ahead and stepped on chest of Shiva( her husband). Immediately she calmed down and relised her mistake of putting feet on husband's chest and in that shock her tongue came out, so this form.



There is beauty even in this form of anger.

May the Devi remove evil from our lives fill us with light.....
 

Sunday 3 November 2013

SHUBHO DURGA PUJO 2013

This year am in Kolkata- the city of joy.
Durga pujo is one festival that I wait for the whole year to come. It is associated with so many sweet memories of childhood and growing up.
In Kolkata for the first time for the pujo.

We started Pujo this time from Chaturthi itself
by Pandal hoping ofcourse.....start 12 at night and came back at 3 in the morning :)

This Durga murti is from Maddox square

This thakur is from Shobha Bajaar, North Kolkata
   

Such a pretty face of the Mother


There was one pandal decorated with peels and seeds of different fruits.
  
This brilliantly lit up pandal  is made of small mirrors all over.

 This beautiful Devi murti is from our owr Pandal


No pujo seems complete without the Alpana. Alpana is traditionally madewith paste of soaked rice paste, but this one I painted in the pandal with the white and red oil paint.

We also organized painting competition for the children on eve of Saptami. Nice to see the kids come up with lovely ideas some very innovative.

 My daughter Aarotrika reciting a bangla poem "Bapuram shapure" by Sukumar Rai. She also won first prize for this in under 5 years age group.


 My son Adhrit reciting a bangla poem "Hatti-matim-tim" by Sukumar Rai


Dashami- after sindoor Khela
  

We intended on face to go home as good girls and children but excited that we were went instead to the ghaat to see Murti Visarjan.
 

AAsche bochor aabar hobe....
Bolo bolo Durga Mai ki Jai.....

Thursday 24 October 2013

Much needed and cherished break- Manipur-Continued.....

Hi! am so sorry to be late in writing again :(
So let me continue my journey in Manipur and start off with

such bright and fresh colours...


This image is of Ninthoukhong cannal in Manipur. Significant because of its role in hydro power generation; but more important to me because my parents used to live near here long back even before I was born. My parents were more thrilled about my Manipur visit than me.




The above two images are from the Second World War memorial build here by the Japanese government in respect for their martyrs in II world war.

This my little world in front of ISCKON temple in Imphal(capital city of Manipur). Just look at the blue pagodas with gold kalash.

 The temple is adorned with fine teak woodwork everywhere.
 This is wood carved Gaduda, just breathtaking.....

The ceilings are decorated with painting...

 A glimpse of the wooden door.


INA(Indian National Army) War Memorial with the statue and many artifact related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose can be seen here apart from the first hoisted Indian flag before freedom.

 This is the famous Loktak lake known for its floating vegetations.
 There are so many flora and fauna dependent on this.

Polo is said to have originated in Manipur. Here is the Imphal polo ground.


My kids celebrated Rakhi (Rakshabandhan) here in guest room.

Last day at Manipur. Kids enjoying the riverside. My daughter Aarotrika and son Adhrit.

Bye Manipur. We had a good rejuvenating time.



Thursday 12 September 2013

Much needed and cherished break- Manipur

We were all tired, more mentally than physically, and this trip came as God's gift. We went to Manipur- one of seven sister states of North-East India. Truly named "Mani"pur meaning Jewel state. Beautiful.


We stayed 10 steps from this mountain river. Bliss...

Early morning 5:15am. You can spot the moon, before the sun is fully out..

Crystal clear water , young, energetic, flowing takes away all your your tiredness...

This one is first day at river bank.

First step into river, hubby dear took the picture....

More to follow soon in next post. C ya...

Vibrant Mushroom Botanical Watercolor Painting with Printable

  Vibrant Mushroom Botanical Watercolor Painting is a great Artwork to own. Watch me paint Bright Watercolor Mushroom and you can enjoy this...