What the heck is art by Gurmeet

This is an interesting blog where Gurmeet makes fun of some of the contemporary masters. Although I do not agree with all of his views, they are really food for thought.
The blog is here

L M Singhvi : Pen and Ink

Angela Merkel: Pen and Ink

Homage to Mario Miranda

Mario(1926 – 2011) was not only an illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist. He was also a muralist. He had no formal education in art. Perhaps that gave him his originality. Self taught artists are hugely inspiring.

A Kearala Landscape with Kuttanad Backwaters and a House Boat

The word 'landscape' has Dutch origin. The word entered the English language in the beginning of the 17th century. First it was used purely as a term for works of art. Its history goes back to cave paintings where the texture on the rocks itself provided ample details for the terrain depicted.

Here is my new landscape painting of Kuttanad with a house boat and all...

Relevance of flower paintings

Flower paintings have been favourites of art lovers throughout the history of art. Its appeal is univarsal. Flowers have a common language which is appreciated by all, irrespective of age, belief, sex, and philosophies. From among the decorative art sales roughly 65 per cent is flower paintings. Roses are the most favourites among the flower paintings.

Most of the major painters have painted flowers. Pierre-Joseph Redoute, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, Andy Warhol etc are some of the names.In Indian miniature paintings, flowers have a very important role.

A sample of gentle analysis of some paintings!

From studies to finished paintings... a gentle analysis.

Rose is white

Taken by my Nokia 5800. Just 3.2 MP. The credit goes to the rose plant(for striking such a pose) and the sun(for taking care of the ISO part).

Self Portrait in Pencil on handmade paper

This is almost me.

Earlier stages of two paintings

Watercolor painting of Kerala Backwaters

This painting is 24 x34 cms Watercolr on Paper
The paper is imported from Italy and watercolors are Daler Rowney imported from England.

Unreal City

My new painting is almost finished. It is titled "Unreal City" and is part of a series on visual readings of famous poems. This painting is based on The Wasteland by T S Eliot.

The painting takes it title from a line that is repeated many times in the poem. The images are drawn mainly from the following lines.

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson!
"You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
"That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
"Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
"Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
"Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
"Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
"You! hypocrite lecteur! - mon semblable, - mon frere!"

The painting is an interpretation of the poem. As I understand the poem speaks about the futility of human conflicts irrespective of the time or place in which they take place. Hence my foreground figures that represent a Roman soldier and a World War I soldier symbolising Stetson and the protagonist who defy time and meet in the background of the London Bridge. The message we get is that all war is one war, equally absurd. The place is any place.

What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal


Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna or London, the place is irrelavant. I use some landmarks of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria and London to represent them and show that the scene depicted is 'any city'. Also I represent the 'falling towers'as the Tower of Babel which is relevant as the poem depicts failures in communication. The half completed tower in the picture represents this.The ship stuck in the drying river evokes connotations of the Smyrna merchant. The ship is inscribed with the lines 'Od' und leer das Meer'.

Article on Picasso's art by Jung

The last article in the book ( Jung: The Spirit in Mn, Art and Literature )on Picasso is interesting. Though Jung does not talk about the artistic aspect of his art, he elaborates the psychology underlying his creativeness. He makes a comparative study of the visual expressions of neurotics and schizophrenics with the art of Picasso. According to him Picasso belongs to the latter group, (not that he suffers from schizophrenia)the main charecteristic of which is fragmentation and such visual expressions contain psychic fault lines. "The picture leaves one cold, or disturbs one by its paradoxical, unfeeling and grotesque unconcern for the beholder."

There can be many fraudulent buying offers, and the artists need to be cautuious!

One gentleman wrote to me the following through email:

Thanks for the message,I am very happy to know that the Artwork is still available for sale. i must tell you i am very much interested in the immediate purchase and i am willing to pay the asking price .

I will like to let you know that your payment will be in a Certified Cashiers Check and i will wait till it clears your bank before telling my shipper to come for the pick up, this will not take time at all because the payment will be sent out immediately i read back from you.You don't have to worry about shipment, my shipper will handle it.

This is because i am currently out of the country on a business proposal. So get back to me with the information needed to send you the payment I:E :Full Name
Standard Mailing Address
Phone numbers
asking price reconfirmation so that i can proceed with the payment arrangement, consider it sold get back to me with the details.will await your message.

I promptly replied and then came this:

Hello,
Thanks for the details which Ive noted down and have also forwarded it
to my shipper.He's due in the US sometime next week and will

definitely be getting in touch with you for the pickup.The truth is, I
would have handled this much differently if i would be at home but Im
a bit pressed for time myself. Im moving to the UK this month as im
being transferred.As it is, I'm sending you an overdraft which will
include my shippers fees as well.He has asked for an upfront before
coming and since I have no access to a lot of cash, Im trying to kill
two birds with a stone.So, once you've received and cashed the check,
deduct your funds and PLEASE help me send the remaining funds to him
(shipper).I'll forward his contact details to you once you've received
the payment.Now I'm concluding you are a responsible person and I can
therefore entrust you with this arrangement.Ill let you know
Immediately the check is sent out to you so you should be looking out
for it.P.S:I`ll require that a reconfirmation of your address is donehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

for menow. I await your reply.

I smelled a rat and stopped communicating with the fellow. I think this is a kind of fraud buy I don't understand how the fellow is going to benefit. If anyone knows more about such fraud, please comment.

Read some sample dubious proposals at artprice.com here.

Biju P Mathew's painting Blue Lotus - Interiors with a blue theme

This is a painting suitable for a blue themed room. Lotus has a lot of symbolic significance in the Indian context. It represents the blooming of wisdom in one of its manifestations. Blue lotus has more symbolic weight lent by the color blue.

The painting on the wall looked like this

Here is the painting on the wall

One more bird painting, framed

This painting is framed for my interior decor

I framed this paiinting and some others for the new house

This framed painting I am ready to part with....

I was busy with the construction... now turning back to paintng

Here is my new house which drove my attention away from painting for a while... Now I am back on track.