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| A page from my sketch book |
It was a
very lucky Friday 13th of February I arrived in India, to spend two sun filled weeks,
with my sister Nicola and her family in Bangalore. They arrived here from
Warwickshire in the UK on “their adventure" two years ago.
My sister’s life
changing experience has impacted on my life of art.
I am an artist
and I work not only with paint but with textiles, about five years ago, I went
through a very stressful time and in order to cope I found comfort in stitching
onto old woollen blankets.
My subjects are
landscapes and figures developed from intense periods of drawing and
painting. I layer my experience into the landscape so that it becomes
psychologically charged with my own memories, emotions, narratives, dreams, and
poems.
The passion and
freedom encountered in the immediacy of sketching is developed and channelled
through paintings, and then consolidated into textile pieces. Labour and
repetition are central to this process and depending on the scale the finished
embroidered textile can take many months to complete.
On my first morning I learnt about the fascinating art of Indian block printing under the shade of mango trees. This was with Poonam in Whitefield’s on the Nallur Halli main road in Bangalore.
We printed, intricate repeating designs with hand carved wooden blocks onto white cotton cloths.
The next day we
walked through glades of patterned palm trees in Palm Meadows, then through the
chaos of the city, to reach the small multi-coloured painted villages.
Animals such as
cows, goats and dogs were in abundance, amongst buildings, temples and swarming
traffic, so integrated that they weaved with man amongst the tirade of
vehicles.The intensity of colour is intoxicating and exhilarating, everywhere I turned colour and pattern overwhelmed me, even coloured washing, hanging against the bright walls became exciting!
I was amazed by
the fruits, vegetables and flowers piled high on rickety wooden carts by the side
of the red dusty roads.
I loved the
petals and flowers arranged artfully floating in water bowls, the chalk patterns
drawn on the pavements, the kaleidoscope of colourful clothing, saris and
textiles.
In my sketch
book I worked with pastels on different coloured papers to record not only what
I could see but how this new environment made me feel.
My drawing
started to change, I altered my colour combinations, and the rhythm of my mark
making became more intense and complicated.Working instinctively I found my landscapes were becoming more exotic, taking on an eastern appearance.
I will share more of my experiences and drawings of India in my next blog post.
