Traditional Calligraphy

Arabic calligraphy is an art form developed over centuries. Many styles have evolved over the years and the art has emerged in its abstract contemporary form also. Though contemporary calligraphy looks great, it requires considerable mastery over the traditional forms. It takes a long time and lot of minute work to get the entire piece correct. This is a piece where I have tried to imitate arabic calligraphy style in the Indian alphabet.

Arabic calligraphy involves a lot of grammer or rules as to how a letter must be placed or how much space has to be in between two lines and so on. The deewani style followed in this picture is more flexible in the form of the alphabet.

Tamil Calligraphy

Being my mother tongue, I have a facination for the tamil language and its script. Tamil script is different from all other languages - it has very few alphabets. The pronounciation of the alphabet changes with reference to the context. Though this may sound a bit difficult for a beginner, practice over a period of time familiarises a person to the nuances of the pronounciations.

In my abstracts here, I have taken quotes from the Thirukural, a remarkable book of couplets in tamil dealing with all aspects of life. The book 'History of Tamil language and literature' by Prof. Vaiyapuri Pillai describes this great book with these words - "Never before nor since, did words of such profound wisdom issue forth from any sage..."

The quote in this painting is translated thus:

A as its first of letters, every speech maintains;

The Primal Deity is first through all the world's domains.

In simpler words,

As the letter A is the first of all letters, so the eternal God is first in the world.

The quote in this painting is:

The twain that lore of numbers and of letters give

Are eyes, the wise declare, to all on earth that live.

In simpler words,

Letters and numbers are the two eyes of man.

Wall series

"Walls", are something we face daily. In many ways these solid walls what we create around us always effect our energy. Artist "Hakim Gazali's" beautiful paintings of wall had a profound effect on me & so i was inspired to start working on a similar style. My "wall series" has travelled from ordinary / every day walls that we see, to cave walls & mountain walls & even drum walls.

Plain walls when needed to be excuted into a painting, needs a lot of play with the colours as well as patience to get the right effect. I have induced Hindi calligraphy to give it a form & meaning.

Calligraphy

Calligraphy as an art started centuries ago when mankind invented communication through the written word. The Arabs, Chinese and Japenese have inculcated this art form into their culture.

In the Arabic art world, calligraphy has grown from the traditional styles to include contemporary abstracts also. The Sharjah Calligraphy Binniale is an event which proves the importance of calligraphy in the Arab world.

We began our journey into the world of arabic calligraphy with the traditional styles of rokah, deevane and deevane jalil scripts. The tradition calligraphy and ornamantation is a laborious task with very minute drawings. Very soon we branched out into the abstract representation of calligrapy.

Dubai hosts many exhibitions in contemporary calligraphy and we have had a chance to see the best of the calligraphers exhibit their art here. Our penchant for calligraphy grows with visits to these exhibitions and we hope to integrate calligraphy into our paintings.

On the potters wheel

It is always facinating to watch a pot take shape on the wheel. It looks easy too. But believe me, it is anything but an easy task. It is one of the most demanding task which requires concentration, attention to details and lots and lots of patience.

The marvel of something beautiful emering out of the most uninspiring lump of clay attracted us to the wheel. After a long battle with the clay and the wheel we got our basic cylinder just right. Never knew that getting a cylinder out of the wheel will make us so proud of ourselves.

From there the process was much faster and we started working on different shapes and styles. Our shared passion for abstracts started influencing our pottery too and we tried to bring in an element of abstract into our creations.

Our exhibitions on ceramic pottery Hot Perspectives 1 & 2 were the result of the recognition of our work on the wheel by the Directorate of art and culture, Sharjah.

Starting with abstracts

Mystic Aura by Pushpa

Mystic Ascent by Pushpa

Abstract by Parvathy

Inter Connection by Parvathy.

When we joined the fine art course at the Sharjah Art Institute, abstract/contemporary art was the remotest thing in our mind. We wanted to learn some painting techniques and may be copy some works of old masters or impressionists.

It was Mr.Muntasir Sharief who introduced us to abstract art. Abstract art is a very difficult subject to teach. In the first class he explained the concept of abstract art with a few of his paintings. Me and Pushpa found it interesting. That was the beginning of our tryst with abstract art. He was somehow able to pass on his passion for abstracts to us within the few months he taught us. We lost contact with him after he shifted base to Holland. We miss his guidence even today when we paint abstracts. So Mr.Sharief, (if you ever happen to read this post), this post is for you....

Face of Asia Exhibition - A review

Name : Face of Asia _ A Photography Exhibition

Artist : Steve McCurry ( The photographer best known for the photograph ‘Afghan lady’ in the National Geographic magazine)

Where: Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah.

We visited the exhibition yesterday. It was a treat to the eyes. Never imagined photography of day to day life and ordinary people can evoke such strong emotions. The exhibition mainly covered three countries - India , Afghanistan & Cambodia. The spirit of each country has been expressed superbly through the lens.
You need not be a photography enthusiast to enjoy this visual treat. It is a must see exhibition of all those of you living here.