Boats

A charcoal abstract sketch of boats and their reflection.

Brooklyn Bridge

Here is an ink drawing I did after the collapse of the twin towers.

New York in full bloom

During my last visit to NY, I noticed that several cabs displayed painted flower designs on their bonnets. They looked beautiful. They made the iconic yellow cabs look even more pretty and eye catching. The design is so simple that it does not add a lot of complexity to the picture, and is very pleasing to the eye. They look beautiful especially when viewed from above (for which there are plenty of opportunities).

I discovered that school kids created the paintings, and NY city printed them on weatherproof adhesive sheets and supplied them to willing cabbies to display it. Lot of this art is created by kids in hospitals. It is aimed as an artistic outlet for the children. Flowers were chosen as the subject because they are "one universal symbol of hope, beauty, life, joy and inspiration".

It sure is a sight to behold.

Pencil sketch

After a long time I got a chance to make a pencil sketch. Here it is... Since I don't have a scanner, I took a picture of the sketch, and hence the pic doesn't do justice to the original drawing.

Hope to keep this momentum and make a lot more sketches and post them here.

Ganesha idol project

A few pictures of my clay Ganesha idol project. Every year I create my own Ganesha idol for the Ganesha Chaturthi. And, every year I try to make it a bit different (hopefully, better) than the previous year. This time, I tried using an armature to support the four hands and the trunk. I made the armature of steel wires (first pic). And, the second innovation was to create the maguta draped over the two front hands. I supported the thin clay structure with a paper skeleton (second pic). The final results were impressive since the trunk was hanging freely without any external support at the end, and the maguta was also hanging freely from the hands.

I could not take the idol to the lake, and had to immerse this idol in a bucket at home since I had used a steel armature, and silver paint.

All in all, this was a fun project in service to lord Ganesha.

Seattle at night

A couple views of Seattle skyline from the Kerry park.

Pencil sketch

Here is a sketch of Aishwarya Rai which I did a few years ago...

Self-portrait

Again, from the same car show.

Abstract art from a car show

Welcome

Chitrakale' means Visual Art in Sanskrit. Visual art is one of the fine kalas (arts) which helps us appreciate the sense of beauty in our surroundings. This is a blog that captures some of my efforts to promote visual art. I will be posting my creations (drawings, paintings, photographs, sculpture, etc.) in this blog whenever I create them (or dig them out).

Enjoy and comment on the exhibits.