Painting Post

'The Girl With Curious Hair', 42" (w) X 46" (h), Oil on canvas, 2009

Painting Post

'Purple Haze', Oil on canvas, 50" (width) X 66" (height), 2009

The Shameless I post

'Rendile' 72" (h) X 101" (w), an oil done by me last year was among the artworks recently chosen by Ugallery.com for a show titled "Urban Canvas". The show is to be held on the evening of April 21st at the Openhouse Gallery in NoLIta, NYC. The event, a team effort made possible by the UJA Federation of New York and the online gallery Ugallery.com is to raise awareness for art therapy. I am happy.

Painting Post

'Moksha II', Oil on canvas, 88" X 84", 2008

Continuing the series of paintings started here, I completed this last night. This took about three weeks to complete. I used a deep cadmium red hue and it seemed to contrast and overlay well over the un-stretched, non-gessoed canvas. I liked it.

Painting post

Sunil, 'Moksha', Oil on canvas, 88" X 84", 2008

It was about a year back. On a weekend, we decided to head out to the Princeton University campus for a quick stroll. The campus gets especially beautiful during fall and last year was no different. Steadfast trees and the undecided leaves on seemed to take on an entirely different hue as they tried to fight the oncoming cold months. Pushing our little son’s baby stroller along, we chanced upon a press release announcing a new exhibition underway at the Princeton University Art Museum. Museum visits are challenging with little ones in tow, but on a whim, we decided to go in and quickly check out the offerings. On display were Fazal Sheik’s photographs of widows in India. It seemed that they were constrained to a strange life of isolation after their husbands had passed on from this world. Due to strange local mores and traditions, they were castoff from normal life and society and constrained to a life of worship - worship of the Hindu god Krishna – it were as if the fault that their spouses died were directly attributed to some failing of their and they were undergoing penitence through a life of prayer. As is attendant with tragic situations like the ones they faced, it was clear that sexual abuse, extreme isolation, mental issues and physical ailments visit the widows. Factors like abuse and isolation tend to leave their characteristic marks on humans. The human face records time and abuse like no other part of our mortal frames – one only has to look carefully for the signs. I wrote about the exhibition in detail here, but what caught me the most was the look on their faces. I took some pictures of the stark black and white faces for projects that were undecided then. Over the past year, I have been planning on painting some of the more evocative ones but did not find the time or inclination. Finally, over the past month, I completed this particular lady. I plan on completing about four more over this year. This was painted in raw sienna, monochrome - a lighter color that I hoped would try and mute the abject darkness inherent in the lady’s face. Of course, try as I might, the light color did not seem to help.

Painting Post

Sunil, 'Irrawaddy', 82" X 70", Oil on unstretched canvas, 2008

It has been a while since I have done an oil painting. The long weekend over Labor day offered me an opportunity to finish a painting that I was planning over the last couple of months. This painting is representative of tribals from the Lower Irrawady delta that was recently flooded.

The monochrome painting was done in burnt umber. Please note that I took the liberty of digitally adjusted the image in the middle to darken splotches where the camera flash distorted the actual dark brown color underneath. Which also brings to mind that one of these days, I need to take up all of these canvases and have them photographed in natural light. Not too sure when that is going to happen. As is usual, I completed the painting by tying ends of a 6 ft X 8 ft unstretched canvas to overhead rafters in the basement using the concrete retaining walls as a vertical ‘easel’ support. Crude, but it works under the circumstances. As always, I used paint directly from the tube without any intervening linseed oil.

Painting post

Sunil, 'Boomer', Oil on canvas, 84" X 72"

Inspiration for this painting came from many sources, but the following incident came to mind as I was starting to undertake this one. I had recently ran into a colleague of mine at work who was remarking that he had about three years before he retires and starts to confront a world where he does not have to wake up and fight the morning commute at 6am every morning, five days a week. On asking him what he was planning to do, he said that he was not relishing the prospect but was still piecing together a post-retirement life in social services and volunteerism. Our talk veered into social security, healthcare and a host of other issues that one starts to think a little more seriously as they start to approach the sunset of their careers. He also talked about growing up as a teenager in the 60's, the free wheeling, artsy culture that pervaded then, the liberalism in the college campuses and the general feeling that ‘it was much better back in my times’. We live in interesting times. Baby boomers like him will be retiring in droves over the next two to three years putting untold stresses on the social net that many take for granted. Medicare and Medicaid will be overtaxed in trying to expand its support for the sudden influx of new participants - willing or unwilling. Faces like this remind me of the coming storm.

Work in progress

Painting Post

Sunil, 'Rendile', Oil on unstretched canvas, 72" X 101"

Detail of above

Relative size