Tripoli Triptastic and the Leaf

I am sure you have figured out by now that I like painting leaves. This was a huge leaf that has turned completely yellow with hints of rust here and there but was still supple and soft. After I finished painting it, I felt that it needed something more but could not decide what. When I found out that this week's challenge at I am the Diva czt was Tripoli, I decided to surround the leaf with bits of Tripoli in combinations with other patterns. The mosaic patterned pot was entirely accidental.

Below are a couple of shots of my studio as it looked in the morning light.

Linked to Paint Party Friday and Iamthedivaczt and Art Journal Journey.

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Painting a Slice of Islamic Art in Istanbul

I grew up in Delhi which is not only the capital of present day India and the capital during the later half of British rule, was also the seat of several Islamic empires, grand and small, during the medieval times. The neighborhood where I spent my childhood and early adulthood, I was surrounded by the monuments of that era from grand and small mosques to tombs of sultans and emperors. My awareness of the splendor of these historical remains grew into deep appreciation in college where I majored in Indian History at both undergraduate and graduate level. And I never lost that love.  Next to Asian art, Islamic art is my most favorite section in any museum.

When Istanbul, Turkey was chosen as the place to view and paint for this month's challenge at the Virtual Paintout, I was excited. Istanbul offers plenty of subjects to paint and I chose to paint one of the  distinctive Islamic  architectural features, arched lattice stone window, known as jhali. The building itself is pretty drab but I liked the windows. 

Below are some  beautiful examples of Islamic art and architecture from various American museums. Enjoy. (Photography by Indira Govindan.)

Linked to Virtual Paintout and Paint Party Friday.

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https://goo.gl/maps/cwD9ZXZEg322

A Tiny Taste

The challenge this week at I am the Diva is to tangle just a small part of a tile and to leave rest empty. Instead of using a real tile, I decided to do the tangle on this lovely autumn-colored leaf. I drew the tangles along the veins and covered just a third of the leaf. I like the overall effect of human-made design  co-existing with gorgeous natural patterning.

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Art Coloring for Adults

You may know by now that I love creating pyrographic art. But, my approach is a little different from the traditional way of creating wood burned art. Mine is more like zen doodle art--dense patterns that are colored later. I spent a very busy time this week creating several pieces to put in my Etsy shop. I made them similar to adult coloring pages except that mine are on wood. I think it is cool because after it is colored it can actually be hung on a wall. Along with each wood piece, I printed a paper copy of it and colored it to give an idea of how to work it on the wood. You can see below what I did it.

Here is the link to my Etsy shop.

In other news, I did this small piece of art to meet two challenges: Iamthediva zentangle challenge and Art Journal Journey November challenge.

I am also linking this post to paintpartyfriday.

Thanks for visiting.