August Artworks

I am presently in India visiting my sister in Chennai, Tamilnadu. I brought with me just a few select art supplies: watercolors and chalk pastels. Surprisingly, chalk has turned out to be easiest and most effective way to create art on the fly. With just a 9"x 11" reusable vinyl chalkboard cloth and a box of colored chalks and a few wet paper towels, I am able to capture the fleeting images of life here in Chennai. Chalk art, by definition, is ephemeral. My visit too is of short duration. Somehow, the medium and the subject seem to have found each other.

Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eve and Kristin for hosting.
Linked to Art*Journal*Journey Color in My World

Sights and Sounds of Chennai

I am presently visiting my sister in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. Chennai in August is a lovely place to be. The weather is pleasant with moderate temperatures. It is the beginning of the monsoon season and the trees and the flowers show off their best colors. The birds feel happy and sing. Even the gaunt strays that dot the landscape look more hopeful and move around with more energy. Below is a sample of the sights and sounds of Chennai in August

Linked to Image-in-ing.

Enjoy.

Pongal Season, Chennai January 2015

January is absolutely the best month to be in Chennai. The weather is incredibly balmy, trees are leafy and green, the mosquitoes behave themselves and the entire city is colorful and in a celebratory mood for the Pongal festival.

It is the season for music festival, arts and crafts shows, textile exhibitions and weddings.

It is the celebration of nature's bounty, winter harvest and the beginning of Sun's northern ascension. In a country where still seventy-five percent of the population lives in villages, Pongal brings farmers and their livestock to the center stage in a grateful acknowledgment of their labor and toil in feeding the country's billion people. Pongal itself means an overflowing cooking pot and every Tamil kitchen at the appointed hour witnesses the milk and rice boiling over the cooking pot. Unsurprisingly, the three-day harvest festival  is also celebrated with varieties of food preparation based on rice and vegetables.

Just before the start of the festival, roadside are filled with carts and stalls of fresh winter vegetables, sugarcane, raw turmeric and fruits.

It is the time for families to do things together.

Even the birds get to partake in the feast!

If cultures reveal their heart and soul in what they celebrate,then Pongal festival is Tamil culture at its best.

Happy Pongal!

Streets of Chennai: Sunday Morning at Barnaby Road, Kilpauk

Familiar Sight: Intersection of Truck and Motorcycle !

Offering Prayers from Outside: Padala Amman Temple

Vehicles Parked Outside the Temple

These photos were taken on a Sunday morning around 9 0' clock when the traffic was still light. It is still awesome to see how pedestrians, four-legged creatures, two-wheelers, auto rickshaws and trucks navigate their way on this busy intersection. There are really no traffic lights or pedestrian crossings here. Just everything and everyone following their own internal GPS!

Thanks for visiting.

Photo Journal: Around Kapaleeshwarar Koil, Mylai, Chennai

Front View, Kapaleeshwarar Koil

This time I remembered to carry my camera with me when I accompanied my sister and my niece for a shopping trip to Mylapore, Chennai. As my sister went in and out of shops for the best Bharatanatyam jewelry, I quickly darted around to take some photos of the famous temple which anchors this bustling affluent residential and commercial community. The story goes that when Mylapore was an undeveloped hamlet several centuries ago, it was filled with mangroves where thousands of peacocks roamed freely. Mayil means peacock, hence the name Mylapore. Well, there is nary a peacock in sight these days. But Mylapore still retains vestiges of its pre-globalization charm and the temple attracts thousands of worshippers, especially on Friday evenings. People come not just to worship but also to shop and eat.

These photos were taken late in the morning when the temple was about to close for the afternoon. The images are presented raw, unedited.

Enjoy.

Thanks for visiting.

IKAT Textiles of India

During my last visit to Chennai, India, I happened upon an exhibition hosted by the Tamilnadu Handloom Corporation called "IKAT of India".  I have always loved Indian textile exhibitions for their variety and diversity. I made it a point to see the exhibition,  took pictures of the some of the fabulous materials on display, and bought a handprinted scarf for myself. Below are the photos I took at the exhibition (some of the photos are a little dark mainly because of the florescent indoor lighting). Enjoy!

I bought this for myself