Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum

Not having to do any holiday shopping, I spent Black Saturday at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts' new permanent gallery on Islamic Art.  It is named "Islamic Art" even though the curator of the gallery describes the collection as "primarily secular". It is also exclusively about the material culture of the padshahs, the sultans, and their nobles. If you are interested in knowing how the common people lived or what they consumed, you would not find it here. Despite such problematics, it is a grand visual and artistic treat and worth a visit. To whet your appetite, below is a sample of what you will find there:

Damascus Room, Syria, 17 century 

Latticed stone window, Mughal Empire, India, 16th cent

Page from one of the largest Qurans, (each line 3 ft. long), Samarqand, early 14th cent,

Album of Calligraphies, Ottoman Period 1500

Turquoise and Black Raqqa Ware, Iran, 15th cent

Enameled Glass, Syria

Tombstone, carved marble, Iran 1352

Gallery Entrance

All photos except the "Damascus Room" are by Indira Govindan


Damascus Room from the Museum website 


Thanks for visiting.

Mod Podge Transfer on Wood Surfaces

I picked up these cute little wooden boxes from Michael's for $1.50 a piece. They looked like little portmanteaus waiting for something to be put inside or on it. I decided to add a label on the lid using the modge podge transfer technique. I used this label from the Graphics Fairy. My method was simple but turned out quite well. Below are the instructions:

1. Print a mirror image of the label using ink jet printer.
2. Apply  a thin coat of the modge podge on the image and glue it on the top of the lid with the image side down. Press the paper gently but firmly so that it adheres on the wood.
3. Let it dry completely.
4. Wet the surface of the paper with little water and gently rub off the paper till the whole image is revealed.
5. I painted the box white around the image so that the image would retain its vintage yellowing color. After the painting, I applied a thin glaze on the image.

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Collage Art: Birds

In many ways, fall and winter are also bird seasons. Nothing signals  the approaching winter as the sight of the birds, shadowy silhouettes against the low sun, making their way to warmer regions. May be, that was why when I wanted to create some new collages for the shop, I chose all bird images from the Graphics Fairy . They are all my favorite birds--peacock, owl and parrot. (Of course, no artwork by an Indian can be complete without including a peacock somewhere.)

The compositions are straight forward and unfussy, letting the color and the beauty of the bird images to shine through. I like the way they have turned out and they are available at my Etsy shop.

Thanks for visiting.

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

How Do You Say Soap in French?

As you know, I like decorating boxes. Inspiration to decorate the box with french soap labels when I happened upon several of them at the Graphics Fairy site under the French category. To keep it cohesive, I decided to use several of the lovely soap labels (or savon as they are called in French). To start with, I decoupaged a background layer of sheet music and then adhered the labels on top. I stained the sides and stamped on the top, added a bit of glitter glue and it was done.

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Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed....

This weekend I worked on decorating a whole set of wood boxes with bird theme. For bird images, I went to the popular and ever generous free graphics site The Graphics Fairy. In addition to the vintage bird images, I also threw several other types of paper such as chiyogami, music sheet and regular scrap paper into the mix. Hence the title above. This mix n' match makes these boxes visually more interesting, I think. Take a look.

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Chalkboard Cloth Halloween Tags

I was inspired to create these tags when I saw this fabulous clip art from the Graphics Fairy. I found so many more that I just had to make some art with them.

To make these tags, I first printed these images on pages torn from a 1950 biography of an actor. With cropping and careful placement I could print about three to four images on a single page. I deepened the vintage look by inking the edges with distress ink. I adhered the image on to one side of a halloween themed scrap paper. On the other side, I adhered a cured piece of chalk cloth (not chalk paint). The two photos above show the front and the back. The pictures below show the individual tags. A nice warming project for a gray rainy Saturday morning.

* You can get the chalkboard cloth from this online store.

Thanks for visiting.