Sunday, October 16, 2011

Number 10 in the Series: Yoga Art


Yesterday, I completed the tenth and the eleventh painting in my elephant yoga art series, which felt like a bit of a milestone. Two years ago, when I did my first piece (below) I did not think I had the imagination to continue with it for this long. In the overall scheme of things, ten is  not a huge number especially given that Patanjali's yoga sutras have hundreds of yoga postures of which at least fifty are currently practiced and, I should have been able to churn out one art piece every week. It was slow going for me mainly because I wanted to depict the poses as accurately as possible while finding a proper way to align the trunk (!), simultaneously maintaining the beauty and the dignity of the character (elephant) doing the poses. Then there was always the question of how to make the baby elephant part of the story. The idea for the asana usually tends to come after the daily yoga practice and I will it work in my head during my long daily commute and then start sketching it on paper.  I am not a a quick draw artist. So, at this stage, eraser becomes absolutely indispensable as you can see below.



Over the course of two years,  the  paintings  evolved organically and began to find its audience. Because I had decided that I would not sell copies, each and every buyer gets an original painting done fresh and new for her. Yes, my buyers are usually women and many of them are from the West Coast.

You can read more about the evolution of my yoga art here. Below are images from my complete yoga series and, you will find them all in my Etsy shop.


Most Popular!


First and Favorite!



Young Mothers' Favorite


Another Young Moms' Favorite



My Sister's Favorite