Durga

“..If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way” – Napolean Hill

Drawing in sketchbooks has never been my thing, when I start drawing or coloring, things just get out of proportion. But these days with my busy office schedule I don’t get the conviction enough to finish huge projects hence trying to teach myself to draw small. A drawing book which I can probably carry with myself as well. Wouldn’t that be nice !!!

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Pedestrian

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop” – Confucius

The two things I enjoy as a pedestrian in India is the simplicity around me and the colors. Even after such technological advances you can always find places where people and things move at a turtle pace and it all looks so peaceful and connected to nature.

Cattle herd returning home after leisurely grazing the whole day. BIT Mesra, Ranchi, the place where I was brought up and completed my education. Life there is so slooowww, nothing much has changed yet. All the while I was there I wanted to move to the city and to fast life and now I spend humongous amounts of money for a peaceful day or two.

Shopping market at Church Complex, Ranchi.

Love the Indian shops they are all so colorful and bright. They never fail to change my mood 🙂

DP Photo Challenge: Pedestrian

Order

“Chaos was the law of nature, Order was the dream of man” – Henry Adams

DP challenge: Order

Mandala 2

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee

I think I went a little overboard with green and messed up with this one. It doesn’t look like one integrated piece … What do you say???

Mandala 1

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities” – Stephen Covey

With my new job and new challenges I am not able to take time out for painting. So I went looking for Van Gough in a box, not that I would endorse that idea very much but this is the best I could do in my current situation and came across this Manadala book – Coloring for Calm. So now a days I am trying to satisfy my artistic itch by filling in colors into the patterns hoping for peace and more free time.

I found this really a good way to meditate also as you have to stay very focused while filling in the finer details. So coloring away and hoping for peace of mind and time so that I can get back to my primitive ways of painting.

Untill then you gotta do what you gotta do!!!

Priority

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Recently I was reading this book, “The One Thing” by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan; and got into thinking about priorities and choices. As adults when we have a choice and everything is at our discretion, is there a clear formula for making decisions so that we can make the best decisions for us and not trade them for just any decision?

I found my answer in PRIORITY, as long as we pause and think what really matters to us and let that drive our day/decisions we will have a sense of progress and can avoid getting trapped in busyness.

This painting was inspired by two thoughts –

1. How important our environment is – we should make all effort to keep the earth beautiful as it should be so that we can enjoy living in it.
2. How important our environment is – we should surround ourselves with people who add value to our life’s so that we can stay positive, productive and happy.

Random Thoughts!!!

Simplicity

“No amount of anxiety can change the future, No amount of regret can change the past” – Karen Salmansohn

Peacocks 12″X12″ board

It’s been a while I have painted something, one because of a relocation AGAIN… but more than that I have been overthinking a lot about what to paint and planning for a complicated project, but when I couldn’t come up with anything I just took the board and paint and did a simple art piece – which makes me happy 🙂

Sva-vida

“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand” – Frank Herbert

Acrylics on a 12″ X 12″ board

I am seriously running out of ideas, this the best I could come up with after months of break.

Rajasthani Woman

“Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion” – Ved Vyasa                 (The Bhagavat Gita)

Acrylics on 16″ X 24″ canvas board

Festive

“Be as you wish to be seem” – Socrates

Gujarat, India

In this blog we will go to the beautiful, vibrant and culturally rich state of Gujarat, India. I have heard a lot about its growth and development models – which I did witness but apart from that I also witnessed the rich culture that they have held onto which I feel is missing in many other parts of India.

So coming back to the trip, it was a 2500 km drive.

 

 

 

Pune – Mumbai Expressway goes through the Western ghats, the winding roads which takes you through 4-5 tunnels was a very good start for the trip.

And then came Mumbai – one of the busiest cities in India, we hustled ourselves out of the crazy traffic of Mumbai, best thing about India – you can just honk your way out of the traffic 🙂

As we were on the border of 2 states – the traffic scene didn’t just end after Mumbai, but now the competitors we the huge trucks, now here you don’t want to piss off the big fellows so you just quietly and articulately make your way out.

Our first stop – Vadodara, it was Navratri festival that day so we had booked tickets for viewing the dance festival.

Navlakhi grounds

These are all local people who have dressed up for the occasion and not hired dancers.

And in no time the whole ground was filled with people dancing in sync and in full zeal to the mesmerizing live music.

If interested you can watch a few videos I had taken here and here and here and here and here

taken from my shaky phone (I had no idea how the event would be else I would have at least freed up space in my phone).

Day2 – drive to Dwarika

Look at those horns, you better not mess with them

We share the road with everybody 🙂

The cows in India have the right to be anywhere they want and there is no debate on that 🙂

Dwarkadhish Temple,

The point where the Gomati river joins Arabian Sea

The street hawker who has all the marketing and management skills she needed and the colorful market place.

And the journey continues

The bridge we were supposed to cross Vs The bridge we crossed

The local highway dhaba, this is a kathiyawadi gastronomical delight – all vegetarian (which makes me happy) and authentic taste which you will not get in any of those high priced imitation restaurants in the city and it is dead cheap plus served with smiles :), so I put all my manners aside and enjoyed my appetizing meal.

There is a small bunch of flamingos in there, Indian bustard – an endangered species, some pelicans, herons and ducks, not much of a bird watcher so just clicked a snap for the record 🙂

Somnath Temple

Phone and cameras are not allowed inside the temple so will have to do with the long shots. If you go to Somnath you should not miss the evening aarti, the music – the drums beats are so transcendental.

Gir National forest – 3 hours back breaking safari to see these and a few other of their relatives but no predators(lion or leopard).  We saw some lion poop and on analyzing that our guide concluded that the lion had a deer for his lunch … so yeyyy, I wouldn’t have mind seeing the lion in action – even if it was pooping.

After a soul enriching trip we headed home.

I’ll miss Kathiawadi food and hope to see you soon.

 

 

Wall mural – Indian dance forms 4

“Happiness can exist only in acceptance” – George Orwell

This is a North Indian dance form – Kathak

 

Wall mural – Indian dance forms 3

“Winning is only half of it. Having fun is the other half”  – Bum Phillips

This West Indian dance form is known as Garba.

 

Wall mural – Indian dance forms 2

“Life’s a dance, you learn as you go” – J Montgomery

This is a East Indian dance form called Manipuri. I have brightened up the first image to showcase the glittery veil 🙂

 

Wall mural – Indian dance forms 1

“Do all things with love, passion and dedication!” – Patrick Driessen

This is a South Indian dance form named Bharatnatyam. 

Wall mural universe – completed

Yeyy… I am back !!! …. after yet another relocation and a whole episode of searching for an apartment – shifting and settling in …

It feels good to back on the web …. and on wordpress… never thought I would miss wordpress so much… 🙂

So, I started this ambitious wall mural project back when I was home and getting bored ….

I was supposed to fill up only the vertical walls …. but I got too ambitious and crawled onto the ceiling too … 🙂

Maybe next time we will find a different place for the refrigerator and fill up that void too … 🙂

In today’s post I will share the mysterious universe I tried creating inside my home…. I am obsessed with the universe paintings these day  🙂 🙂

The ceiling view

The side view

The burning sun – it looks far better in real

The earth’s representative – the tree 🙂

“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand” – Neil Armstrong

Madness

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” – Marilyn Monroe

Happy

“If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy

Photoshop

Divine beauty

“Beauty is power, a smile is its sword” – John Ray

Divine beauty

Hummingbird

“Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness” – Andre Gide

Digital Art

My first digital art, I have used Illustrator and Photoshop to accomplish this. As much as I am content with the outcome, I am also dissatisfied with the amount of time it took for me put this thing together in Illustrator because of its slow performance. I still don’t know if I am done with this artwork or did I just abandon it !!!

I think I’ll just stick to Photoshop and try Sketchbook for my next work.

Bliss

“To be happy–one must find one’s bliss”  – Gloria Vanderbilt

Acrylics on A3 Paper

I am not able to capture the true colors and life in the painting. I am going to try some photoshop techniques that I am learning. But in the meantime just wanted to share the painting as I am done with it.

 

Confusion

“Be faithful to that which exists within yourself” – Andre Gide

Acrylic on 8′ X8′ board

Started out to make a real life image, but true to form ended up making an abstract or whatever you call this art 🙂

Guardian of my galaxy …. who just doesn’t care !!

The Guardian of our Galaxy… but all he cares about is his meaty bone. He been eating them like crazy these days. For now he is the muse for this painting.

Prints for sale on: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/alien-dog-prasna-velcheru.html

Power

“Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t” –Margaret Thatcher

Oil pastels

Learnt one thing about oil pastels – if you think you have done a mistake, its better to start afresh.

Country side

acrylics 12X 12 canvas board

Prints for sale on: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/country-side-prasna-velcheru.html