Summer Paintings

Another madhubani painting on handmade paper.

MV Arts and Wine Festival

Cuban jazz fusion band at one end and beautiful photography skills from the Czech Republic at the other, the Arts and Wine Festival in Downtown Mountain View just had me amazed.

I want to publish this post as a tribute to the awesome "artsy/musical" skills of my friends back in Columbia-Rachels A C K, Amy, and Walid- just because all the time I was there, i couldn't help but think how much they would have enjoyed it!

So it started with food stalls and the smell of steak was overwhelming me. I was about to throw up and ran a bit only to find some girls doing the Hula dance at the "Win a Free Trip to the Polynesian Islands" stall. And then as we moved along, every single stall started to catch my attention by fascination.

The Czech photographer was the first one. She clicked amazing pictures in cities around the world and they were just stunning pieces of 3D work...they were mostly taken in Prague, CR and Jaipur, India.
Then there were these shi metal scuptures made a little far south from San Diego in California.
And I could probably go on and on about every single experience of unique art I had today but Ill just let the pictures talk.

My Secret Pleasure...(Playing Around with handmade Paper)

This semester has managed to make me quite miserable. I have never been without a smile on my face in a long long time...
So while the spring break was going on, I decided to take out my anguish and burden by taking up two more painting projects.

My charcoal painting is my version of Waterhouse's Boreas and my second piece for this style :)
I have been trying to find the time and piece of mind for her dress and face since last summer. I still haven't mustered up the courage to give her life (and features). So maybe, by the end of this weekend, I might have her all done, and ready to be up here.

This other one is a traditional style of painting called "Madhubani" which origins from a town of the same name in the eastern state of Bihar, India. Since the artists are simple people with little or no tools and paints to work with, they usually use natural inks made from leaves, flowers, and pretty much anything they can find. The outlines are made with wooden sticks and the color is filled in with these sticks snipped, shaved, and peeled apart at the end to give it the texture of a paintbrush. Often times though, cotton is used too.

My modern-day substitute?
Black ball point ink pen and markers.
This one has become quite special because my mom(my teacher) has grown quite fond of it; It'll hang wherever she takes it along with her =)