Summer Break

                                        

Growing up, summer break was a period of guilt-free recreational reading that was totally unconnected to studies. Summer break was when your parents could not yell at you for wasting time  reading comics or Mills and Boon or Agatha Christie. By the time my daughter was born it was accepted that any reading was good for the young minds. My daughter was a voracious reader. She would read the labels on the cereal box as avidly as a novel by Edith Wharton. For her too, summer break meant that she can read without breaking for homework. 

The pyrographic art on the cover of this wooden book box evokes those happy memories of long forgotten days. Using my signature motifs, most of the art was wood burned. Only the elephant and the bird were painted. The style of this painting is Indian folk art. 

Linked to Paint Party Friday. 

                                               

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Summer of Color Grand Finale: Orange, Orange, Blue

This was a painting I did on a canvas which I then made into a journal cover. Blue is rather predominant in this composition but the focal point is the moon which turned blood orange during the total lunar eclipse of April 2014. Providing companionship to the unusual Moon is Spica the brilliant star of the constellation Virgo and the red planet Mars. I love astronomy and after witnessing this uncommon sight I recreated it as a painting. Additional orange elements are the orange button closure and the orange glass bead.

This  journal cover hews more closely to the orange-orange-blue color scheme. There are two shades of orange and a single shade of blue. I made the cover using recycled sari material that had these lovely shisha (mirror) embroidery. The blue and orange closure was made using fabric and a button. The wrap around cord is also a blue.

Orange and blue are terrific color combinations and I am pleased that I was able to have two things that could fit into the challenge.

Thank you Kristen for this wonderful challenge. See you next year.

Linked to Summer of Color challenge.

Snail Mail Art: From a Pachyderm's Perspective

This was my first attempt at mail art. I was first introduced to this fascinating art form on Dave Dube' artblog and later on I came upon upon this book "Good Mail Day: A Primer for Making Eye-Popping Postal Art" by Hinchcliff, J and Gilligan, Carolee. And there are several boards on the Pinterest to inspire.

Not surprisingly, I used my favorite characters, Elephant Lochanadevi and her child, for my first mail art. In this age of texting and e-mail, it is touching to see this pair still using the old-fashioned snail mail.

I am pleased that it got published in the July 2015 issue of UPPERCASE which is dedicated to Stamps and Doilies. It is quite fantastically put together and you can get a low-resolution view of it in here.

You will find several of these in my Etsy shop 

Linked to Art Journal Journey July Challenge on Post and Postage and Paint Party Friday. 

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Coloring Season

Summer puts everyone in a coloring mood, I think. This week's challenge at I am the Diva is to use colors for the tangles. There is, of course, the Summer of Color  hosted by Kirsten at Twinkletwinklelikethestar where the colors for this week's challenge are two shades of green and pink. 

I burned this ZIA on wood using a pyrographic tool. After the design was burnt, I colored the water, leaves and the flower using two shades of green and pink. The colors, especially pink, look a little darker because of the wood. 

Responding to several challenges in one art is a challenge in itself but it streches you in a way that is very satisfying. 

Linked to Iamthediva and Summerofcolor.

Sari Art: Lacey Circles

This sari art is a work in progress and an evolving one too. It started with the drawing of a stylized swan. Then I decided to put it in relief with lots of circles around it. In the zentangle vocab these circles are called tipple, which incidentally is this week's challenge at I am the Diva. It is one of my favorite tangles.

The completed sari art will be revealed soon.

Linked to Paint Party Friday. 

Sari Art: Birds of Same Feather

When I first started selling my art a few years ago, I used to do a series of mixed-media artwork which I called "Sari Art". Using watercolors and actual sari pieces I tried to capture the complex colors and textures of Indian saris on paper. It was really fun to do  and interestingly enough there was a market for it.  After a while, I moved on to other things.

For this week's Summer of Colors challenge (Purple, Purple, Yellow), I dug out an unfinished sari art. The main section was already painted in purple color along with the purple border which came from an actual sari.  Last night,  I added a couple of paper birds, colored them yellow and added the phrase "birds of same weather" also in yellow.  I like the effect of purple and yellow together.

You will find examples of other sari art pieces on this blog here.


Linked to Paint Party Friday and Summer of Colors.

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Painting Summer Colors with Limited Palette

This week's colors for SOC are Pink, Pink and Orange. I am not a particular fan of pink but I love its darker and richer shades like magenta. Orange always gets my muse going. Typically with this background, the bird would be in silhouette but I like this one too.

Created for Summer of Colors and Paint Party Friday challenges.

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