69: Watercolour Painting: Art & Music fusion-2/2

Early this month, Dr. Martin Clayton & Dr. Laura Leante, ethnomusicologists from Durham University, UK, conducted a workshop on Khayal and Visual Art as part of their research project to which I had the honour of being invited to participate in at Studio7 in Pune.

We, a group of 6 artists of various backgrounds were asked to create works of art based on audio clips of a Khayal in Raag Raageshri, after a brief description of the raag sung by singer Surashree Joshi, a disciple of noted singer Late Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe, a leading Indian vocalist and composer of Hindustani classical music whose singing style had its roots in Gwalior gharana.

As per the brief by Surashree, Raag Raageshri is supposedly an evening time raag following the swars sa, ga, ma, dha, ni. And so, in this second painting based on this raag, I have tried to bring out the evening mood with the "just rising" moon, an evening pink & blue sky and in the foreground, the five bush foliages in violet, blue, green, orange & red represent the 5 aforesaid swars from the rainbow spectrum alluding to the seven swars of Indian Classical music.

Watercolour on Handmade Paper

Size: 20" x 14"

68: Acrylic Painting: Art & Music fusion-1/2

Early this month, Dr. Martin Clayton & Dr. Laura Leante, ethnomusicologists from Durham University, UK, conducted a workshop on Khayal and Visual Art as part of their research project to which I had the honour of being invited to participate in at Studio7 in Pune.

We, a group of 6 artists of various backgrounds were asked to create works of art based on audio clips of a Khayal in Raag Raageshri, after a brief description of the raag sung by singer Surashree Joshi, a disciple of noted singer Late Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe, a leading Indian vocalist and composer of Hindustani classical music whose singing style had its roots in Gwalior gharana.

As per the brief by Surashree & the subsequent audio clip, the vibrations I felt while working on this painting were of sheer richness & magnificence of Indian Classical music by itself plus the fact that it used to be aptly performed in the darbars, mahals & havelis of yore. And so, what flowed through my brushes in this one of two paintings was the rich architectural features of these very darbars, mahals & havelis in the form of rich arches & columns etc. Actual rich gold & silver pigments were used to depict this. The steps in the foreground also represent the ups & downs of the swars or notes on the musical octaves that flow throughout the raag. All in all, the feel of the khayal was nothing but simply"Rich".

Acrylics on Oil Paper

Size: A1