tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80780691554967688752024-03-25T19:28:05.318+05:30Of this and thatBalaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-55109572242473520512017-01-29T21:57:00.000+05:302020-05-23T09:33:28.590+05:30To Tirunelveli and Tamarabharani with Mystical Palmyra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Two years ago Nithya and I went along on a two day holiday trip to Tirunelveli organised by <i><a href="http://www.mysticalpalmyra.com/">Mystical Palmyra</a></i> an organisation led by Priya Thyagarajan, a young pocket dynamo with extraordinary organisational skills, and Pradeep Chakravarthy a historian and epigraphist. This was a pilot effort by the duo and around thirty of us made up the tour party. Most of us knew a few in the group, but none of us knew everyone.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzoowdw-jX6zqgWhSYTPplqgtOXp0OKqeitSg5P1YYK79A7gwlUIOgqQRU1jdZ4PCE290_nsP_TcIrrNXr28UmJFbsGSzCKbmaz4xAOdE12IWteVFxJ2F4oDrJVVX-3AAKt8BwLqTzNHI/s1600/Early+Pandya+Cave+Temple%252C+Thirumalapuram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzoowdw-jX6zqgWhSYTPplqgtOXp0OKqeitSg5P1YYK79A7gwlUIOgqQRU1jdZ4PCE290_nsP_TcIrrNXr28UmJFbsGSzCKbmaz4xAOdE12IWteVFxJ2F4oDrJVVX-3AAKt8BwLqTzNHI/s320/Early+Pandya+Cave+Temple%252C+Thirumalapuram.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Early Pandya Cave Temple, Thirumalapuram</div>
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That trip did have some glitches. We visited several temples to savour their architectural, social, and cultural content. But many in the tour group thought that worship was part of the tour agenda. This resulted in the schedule going haywire. But in all other respects the holiday was very enjoyable and we got to see and learn about many interesting facts connected with the places and regions that we visited, including the local cuisine. We also go to know the others in the group and found them to be very good company.</div>
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Steeple of hill-top church, Thirumalapuram</div>
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Before the trip ended the organisers asked for feedback from all the tour members and by the time the next tour came along in about three months they acted on most of the suggestions. It was decided that these tours would focus on the cultural and heritage aspects, and not on religious worship. Since then Nithya and I have been on all the tours organised by Mystical Palmyra, which translates to a tour every three months or so.</div>
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A structure near the rear entrance to the temple at Thiruppudai Maruthur</div>
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Typically we leave on a Thursday evening and return on Sunday morning so that we can rest and recover to face the week on Monday morning. We spend two nights on the train and one night in a hotel. And local travel in the region that we visit is in a/c coaches. And over the last two years it has got to the point where we not only look forward to visiting new places but also in getting together with familiar faces in the tour group.</div>
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The sketches in this post are from the two tours to Tirunelveli. The second one was in December last year. The first three sketches were made on location and the last one was done later using a photograph taken on the trip for reference. Over the next few posts I propose to share more of these sketches and some of the stories related to them with you.</div>
Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com2Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India8.7139126000000022 77.7566523000000428.5883521000000016 77.595290800000043 8.8394731000000029 77.91801380000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-47428321092999731102016-12-06T14:35:00.000+05:302017-01-29T17:42:39.415+05:30Kailasanatha Temple, Ellora, India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It has been a very long time since I posted in this blog. I have been meaning to resume but the longer the break the tougher it is to get back. An unexpected break from work today motivated me to post something to get started once again.</div>
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A few days ago I made a quick impressionistic pen and ink sketch of the Kailasanatha Temple, at Ellora, in Maharashtra, India. The sketch is based on a photograph in Good Ideas' album Hindu Temples on Facebook. </div>
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This is a rock cut temple carved out of a single rock, and one of the biggest of this kind. It is approximately 1300 years old and there is an interesting story about the construction, or should I say the sculpting, of this temple.</div>
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The king of the region was seriously ill and his loving queen prayed for his recovery. She made a vow that if the king was cured she would not only build a temple, but also fast until the topmost part of the temple was in place. </div>
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In due course the king recovered and it was now time for his queen to keep to both her promises. But every temple architect who was consulted said that it would take years for a befitting temple to be constructed. And surely the queen could not survive fasting for such a long period.</div>
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But one temple architect came up with a very clever solution. He proposed carving a temple from a huge rock and working from the top downwards. This would allow him to sculpt the top of the temple in about a week, allowing the queen to fulfill her vow.</div>
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Whether this story is true or not in all its details, experts are of the opinion that this temple was indeed sculpted out of a single rock, and also that it was carved from the top downwards!</div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com0Ellora, Maharashtra 431102, India20.0238247 75.16183449999994120.0163652 75.151749499999937 20.031284199999998 75.171919499999944tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-1176201741327466162015-07-16T16:43:00.000+05:302015-07-16T16:43:32.700+05:30Queen Mary's College, Chennai - Centenary Celebrations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Yesterday I attended one of the events connected with the centenary celebrations of the Queen Mary's College, Chennai. This was the first college exclusively for women in Chennai and probably the third such college in India. It is administered by the Goverment of Tamilnadu which controls the purse strings and the faculty appointments. At present around 7500 students study here in two shifts.</div>
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The college was established in July 1914 and therefore the cebrations had started a year ago and were just culminating at the end of the centenary year. My wife studied here over forty years ago and has very fond memories of how it used to be then.</div>
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About a year ago she had arranged for the members of Chennai Weekend Artists to visit the campus on a Sunday morning and sketch on location. I spent most of that morning wandering around the campus and therefore made only a few quick sketches which I am posting here.. It was my first visit to the place and I was struck by the air of decay and neglect. Despite some efforts to spruce up the place in view of the occasion, that air still prevailed yesterday. </div>
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In fact one of the guests at the function remarked to me about this and asked asked why on earth anyone in authority would want to deliberately run down the place, for that is what seems to be happening. To me the answer seems very simple and obvious. The people in power obviously do not care either about heritage or education. It must be a source of very great irritation to them that such a prime site facing the Marina Beach, and with a sea view from almost every part of the campus, is not exploited to its full commercial value.</div>
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Some years ago there was a proposal to shift the Government Secretariat to this location and relocate the college to a much smaller site. But there was enormous resistance to this idea, not only from the students and some of the staff, but also from the general public. Ultimately the court intervened and the government was compelled to drop the idea. One would have thought that the authorities in power would have been gracious enough to then take up the upkeep of the college in all sincerity, but that has not happened so far. Is it too much to hope that there will at last be a change of heart and that the government will do everything in its power to restore many of these buildings, use them appropriately so that the buildings are alive, and also maintain the grounds which have the potential to be a beautiful campus but alas, at present, resemble a dump or a thorny scrubland depending on which part of the campus you are in? </div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com2Kailasapuram, Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India13.044460035175121 80.278923455017113.042526535175121 80.276401955017093 13.04639353517512 80.2814449550171tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-9616712326912812402015-07-12T17:39:00.000+05:302015-07-12T17:39:05.667+05:30India's National Musical Instrument - The Veena<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The veena is India's national musical instrument. The musical notes emanating from this instrument are rich and very pleasing. And the musical concerts by veena vidwans (expert players) draw huge crowds. But all this has not resulted in any benefit to the skilled makers of this musical instrument. This fact was the central theme of <b><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/the-veena-makers-of-thanjavur/article7407233.ece?utm_source=Vuuklemail&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Newsletter">an article</a></b> in today's issue of The Hindu, one of India's national newspapers.</div>
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I was very distressed to read this article. Unfortunately we seem to be losing a lot of crafts and skills that have been honed and perfected over generations. If this is the plight of something as glorious as <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11-Eh1m3lR0">veena music</a></b> I can only wonder what would happen to very many other less popular but equally precious links to our heritage.</div>
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There was one more reason for this particular article catching my attention and moving me. My wife is particularly fond of veena music. She initially learnt to play this instrument when she was a teenager and continued to learn and train well into her late 50s from her aunt Vidya Shankar, a reknowned musicologist and veena vidwan. </div>
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My taste in music is very different and for most of my life I have given carnatic music performances a miss. But about a year and a half ago my sketching friends in <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChennaiWeekendArtists/photos/">Chennai Weekend Artists</a></b> and I were asked by the editor of a local newspaper if we could attend the December music concerts all over Chennai, that this city is famous for, and make some on the spot sketches. I therefore attended a few concerts at different venues and a very remarkable thing happened.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y7Rpklxxzd0/VaJHqazkJZI/AAAAAAAALv8/4Yu0nEw_uEw/s1600/TN%2BKrishnan%2B%2526%2BSriram%2BKrishnan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y7Rpklxxzd0/VaJHqazkJZI/AAAAAAAALv8/4Yu0nEw_uEw/s320/TN%2BKrishnan%2B%2526%2BSriram%2BKrishnan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On earlier visits (that I had been compelled to make despite my protests) to these concerts, my focus had been on the music and an attempt to appreciate it, which I found very difficult to do. But now, with my entire focus on the sketching, the music was only something in the background and I found it very pleasing and soothing. By the time the month long musical concert season was over I was a convert and now I am more than happy to sit through some performances, with or without a sketchbook in hand.</div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-84117783715340051462013-11-23T19:57:00.000+05:302013-11-23T19:57:40.044+05:30Dakshina Chitra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.dakshinachitra.net/scripts/experience.asp">Dakshina Chitra</a> is a very popular heritage village located on the
Southern outskirts of Chennai, on the way to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram">Mamallapuram</a> (previously known as Mahabalipuram). Some
months ago I had visited this place with members of my sketching
group (Chennai Weekend Artists). My friends were delighted with the
sketching opportunities at this venue, and since then we have made
two more visits to the place. I am convinced that we will be going
there many more times.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKJcTS7_7BaRwxbtq2Y1aaKidIHo3xf5S29CZBlGrQI_NmTEgYJJplqezALH04s1YcUsaeh8SiYksr8h2npjz8wX18Xea7QV96sAGaBqxMo8ZlcxVsQnyFV-nxAfGzp_iht3nIroTvFGA/s1600/Narasimhulu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKJcTS7_7BaRwxbtq2Y1aaKidIHo3xf5S29CZBlGrQI_NmTEgYJJplqezALH04s1YcUsaeh8SiYksr8h2npjz8wX18Xea7QV96sAGaBqxMo8ZlcxVsQnyFV-nxAfGzp_iht3nIroTvFGA/s200/Narasimhulu.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EayCItMZzNDWPsqbr6uWqwBzqu91M5klR745BPhZf6qb4ivzsizDEu6f5f4nC4soE7V6F6m8lwxsFbKviGc9g4_TG6bR5CTS4fz0WnSQx5P934XUusx2n_3YiUihbBXslNS8pIIWmWU/s1600/Lakshminarayana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EayCItMZzNDWPsqbr6uWqwBzqu91M5klR745BPhZf6qb4ivzsizDEu6f5f4nC4soE7V6F6m8lwxsFbKviGc9g4_TG6bR5CTS4fz0WnSQx5P934XUusx2n_3YiUihbBXslNS8pIIWmWU/s200/Lakshminarayana.jpg" width="176" /></a></div>
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During our second visit to Dakshina Chitra there was a performance
by a troupe of drummers from a neighbouring state. In the short time
available before the start of their performance I managed to do a
couple of quick sketches of a couple of the artistes. These served as warm-up exercises
to my main sketch of the day. This was a sketch of the Chettinad
House. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chettinad">Chettinad</a> is a small region in Southern Tamilnadu known for
its local cuisine, architecture, and consequently its skilled masons,
carpenters and craftsmen.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKF5JRFs16dD7MOoqwAb9jGBMpTPzOqzI3DPl4xEX29jXlDPrjEk1n16NjjZdNDUOGV_pXmOI3fDjVny_0QcXQtsCZpD5ygoH_fgBTzpFk5FgdghiDp6g4h_xotKAQnk3S64SGFvoWsog/s1600/Chettinad+House+at+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKF5JRFs16dD7MOoqwAb9jGBMpTPzOqzI3DPl4xEX29jXlDPrjEk1n16NjjZdNDUOGV_pXmOI3fDjVny_0QcXQtsCZpD5ygoH_fgBTzpFk5FgdghiDp6g4h_xotKAQnk3S64SGFvoWsog/s320/Chettinad+House+at+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Our most recent visit was last month. This time there was a newly
constructed building called the Chikmagulur House which caught my eye. It represents the type of houses seen in a certain part of Karnataka, a neighbouring
state. As has been my practice over the last few
months, I sketched this and the other sketches of the day directly in ink with a Hero 578 fountain pen.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhntUWDx7UNUVeJaLTiVyAfHjP6ciN8RAiK_peKoPbbk_zp9vkD-E94wKANePwSvEOljFuoP2PjCq9FDTE9NqDpvRYX1WROPrzA3dWu-CmI2C3ktLZo8gyU2rxZwGbmzzBcPQcf23HWU/s1600/Chikmagalur+House,+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhntUWDx7UNUVeJaLTiVyAfHjP6ciN8RAiK_peKoPbbk_zp9vkD-E94wKANePwSvEOljFuoP2PjCq9FDTE9NqDpvRYX1WROPrzA3dWu-CmI2C3ktLZo8gyU2rxZwGbmzzBcPQcf23HWU/s320/Chikmagalur+House,+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My next sketch was of a cluster of thatched houses typical of
rural Tamilnadu. We use different types of thatched roofing in this
region. The roof in this cluster is made of river-bed reeds and is considered a higher quality of thatch roofing. The space under
this type of roof is much cooler than under other types of thatch
roofing which use the woven leaves of palm trees.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4b7lBWD6VL8pTqBNkD6E-FDmGm1p2L3rOf7y9MbXT_FLAu91ARmfeDhD9-ep1cWdZUl3o-QSuB4qAZsNqQC8MJbFmkENwt1tT9Ic0ZvC09gp08PXC92YwXiBvnsERxAUfzfgASkYCPI/s1600/Thatched+Houses,+Tamilnadu+Section,+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4b7lBWD6VL8pTqBNkD6E-FDmGm1p2L3rOf7y9MbXT_FLAu91ARmfeDhD9-ep1cWdZUl3o-QSuB4qAZsNqQC8MJbFmkENwt1tT9Ic0ZvC09gp08PXC92YwXiBvnsERxAUfzfgASkYCPI/s320/Thatched+Houses,+Tamilnadu+Section,+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Villages in Tamilnadu have temples dedicated to a guardian deity.
These temples are called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiyanar">Ayyanar</a> Temples and the priests in these
temples come from the potter community. As a result, the icons in and
around these Ayyanar Temples are usually made of terracotta. Dakshina
Chitra has showcased one such temple and my next sketch was of a
white painted terracotta idol facing this temple.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirQIOtFtBuUeOg6Y9Y5cN6hwCHLqxU9cuag1oLQ8P09q6dSDS9-oqvw63va_UMdCU4xtYnrgNVlBkEpX2EbGH2kKCXWn49epTOaJdr2l98YyNYrgd70WhuNKUggfqGO8aCUqIUCM7PA9U/s1600/White-painted+Terracotta+Sculpture,+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirQIOtFtBuUeOg6Y9Y5cN6hwCHLqxU9cuag1oLQ8P09q6dSDS9-oqvw63va_UMdCU4xtYnrgNVlBkEpX2EbGH2kKCXWn49epTOaJdr2l98YyNYrgd70WhuNKUggfqGO8aCUqIUCM7PA9U/s320/White-painted+Terracotta+Sculpture,+Dakshina+Chitra.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
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After each sketching trip one of the members of the group posts a
report of the visit and the other members then upload their sketches and photographs
of the day into this thread. If you would like to see what others in my sketching group sketched on these visits please follow these links:</div>
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<a href="http://penciljammers.com/group/the-photograph/forum/topics/penciljam-dhakshina-chitra-on-14-oct-12">Dakshina Chitra - 1st visit.</a></div>
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<a href="http://penciljammers.com/group/the-photograph/forum/topics/penciljam-dakshina-chitra-on-6-jan-13">Dakshina Chitra - 2nd visit.</a></div>
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<a href="http://penciljammers.com/group/chennai-weekend-artists/forum/topics/cwa-dakshina-chitra-20th-october-2013">Dakshina Chitra - 3rd visit.</a></div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com10Dakshina Chitra, Muttukadu, TN 603103, India12.822496 80.24220100000002312.8205605 80.239679500000022 12.8244315 80.244722500000023tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-25937318260288649462013-11-07T20:59:00.000+05:302013-11-07T20:59:10.957+05:30Doll Bazaar, Mylapore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Navarathri is a
festival celebrated widely throughout India over nine successive
nights. In several Indian languages the word means “nine nights”
and perhaps that is why the festival is called Navarathri. There are
many variants of this festival and in South India, and in particular
in Tamilnadu this is a time when people arrange dolls and religious
icons in an artistic manner within their houses and invite their
neighbours over. There is therefore a lot of socialising over these
nine days.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzGgR8La4HDKWXgkRusuRfsHlWX6m1T7tBQcFMa_Ikggjzpdhd7zV4_oGnAT9uERMy2l6q4z5xtGbd6uS7D2rNSy-tpXzS6Jq6NcCpkTyLwCpAAvqWfbRYbXWCSXg9I9g6A3WlFCDkZY/s1600/Doll+Vendors,+in+a+world+of+their+own.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzGgR8La4HDKWXgkRusuRfsHlWX6m1T7tBQcFMa_Ikggjzpdhd7zV4_oGnAT9uERMy2l6q4z5xtGbd6uS7D2rNSy-tpXzS6Jq6NcCpkTyLwCpAAvqWfbRYbXWCSXg9I9g6A3WlFCDkZY/s320/Doll+Vendors,+in+a+world+of+their+own.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Each family tries to
outdo the others in the selection and artistic arrangement of the
stuff that they display. This results in lots of doll bazaars
(markets) springing up in the weeks preceding this festival and
during the festival itself. Most of these bazaars sprout around
temples. The vendors spread out their wares on the pavements or hawk
them from pushcarts.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3uYDy6UWCE8M0Nz8TLnCzzZF4AR8r_3w2o3ErBXZhKwu2cXrzKt6a7y_PP2eq1BkMeRsz0CEpCxXmhmnLSzStAVY_W6zISD8LNFWQ4ubSmDyBLrKNQGbKL1juazlcXQPSe9GZISBRZA/s1600/Doll+Vendor,+North+Mada+Street,+Mylapore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3uYDy6UWCE8M0Nz8TLnCzzZF4AR8r_3w2o3ErBXZhKwu2cXrzKt6a7y_PP2eq1BkMeRsz0CEpCxXmhmnLSzStAVY_W6zISD8LNFWQ4ubSmDyBLrKNQGbKL1juazlcXQPSe9GZISBRZA/s320/Doll+Vendor,+North+Mada+Street,+Mylapore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">In even the recent
past most of these dolls were made of eco-friendly material like
clay, wood, reeds and so on and were made by local craftsmen. The
displays therefore also served to showcase local crafts and arts. But
of late I see plastic dolls of Hindu deities, made in China, flooding
our markets. To me this robs this festival of much of its charm and
relevance.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfH81jluglO9eNoBSbCvRiGg9DqzkusTONtbWciXMgGAOtf5dEWK8CkhHfEnXRmxfD0457TccyMcpfrcAubK0hkzDChbPYoFoVXvUVhsdk7dBb7F2IMl0sctjooRgwbxH0iU7Fg-DHXI/s1600/Street+Scene,+North+Mada+St.+Mylapore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfH81jluglO9eNoBSbCvRiGg9DqzkusTONtbWciXMgGAOtf5dEWK8CkhHfEnXRmxfD0457TccyMcpfrcAubK0hkzDChbPYoFoVXvUVhsdk7dBb7F2IMl0sctjooRgwbxH0iU7Fg-DHXI/s320/Street+Scene,+North+Mada+St.+Mylapore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">During this year's
Navarathri I visited the area around the Mylapore Temple along with
others in my sketching group to sketch the doll vendors. Although I
did sketch some of them the dolls themselves were small and therefore
did not figure too prominently in my sketches. But I think I did
manage to capture some of the character of these informal and very
chaotic shopping areas.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTyPwh_tyhuuxivBYLsuwFuGryUS7bLNDISe6nx6DrdOAok2VmrQb89Jp1-12u7NK48MP48RDbTlvYKAijRXeTZBjwKx4gbb1SZ2txEPC8JgIN7ulw-QeFfzsYdPxlpGF2Qxw7iqfyfP4/s1600/Mylapore+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTyPwh_tyhuuxivBYLsuwFuGryUS7bLNDISe6nx6DrdOAok2VmrQb89Jp1-12u7NK48MP48RDbTlvYKAijRXeTZBjwKx4gbb1SZ2txEPC8JgIN7ulw-QeFfzsYdPxlpGF2Qxw7iqfyfP4/s320/Mylapore+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I sketched all four on location, directly in ink, using a Hero 578 fountain pen.</span></div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com3Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India13.03351660467413 80.26970735146483113.01804710467413 80.249537351464838 13.04898610467413 80.289877351464824tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-55617547911934331002013-10-18T22:10:00.000+05:302013-10-18T22:10:08.012+05:30Chennai Weekend Artists<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiofg2op02LI3hsWsaxqu1BWgKNwy9tVhcD08zXNmx1eTMdYzwZQZMnh6doKRfHC6OxesWgb01GynI6pxFGj97s8QsD3WVb2Q8DXMT29tT4QcMWqDFKSo5YUFGe9cHp0vJVyroWpxrN_vI/s1600/CWA+at+Parry's+corner+-+30th+June+2013+-+sketch+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiofg2op02LI3hsWsaxqu1BWgKNwy9tVhcD08zXNmx1eTMdYzwZQZMnh6doKRfHC6OxesWgb01GynI6pxFGj97s8QsD3WVb2Q8DXMT29tT4QcMWqDFKSo5YUFGe9cHp0vJVyroWpxrN_vI/s320/CWA+at+Parry's+corner+-+30th+June+2013+-+sketch+3.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
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I have not posted in this blog for several months but
I have been fairly regular with my Sunday morning location sketching.
I am still part of the same sketching group that I joined in Sept
2012 but we now have a new name: <a href="http://penciljammers.com/group/chennai-weekend-artists">Chennai Weekend Artists</a> (CWA) hosted
by the art community <a href="http://penciljammers.com/">Pencil Jammers</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMvYdD56sMu6evpFDI3zx6KjqaDuhKSfYdcLL0dDaaHQTccfiXpdob_FSBZ2Niyidsy2PngivTMnkQf2n7iJdiV_yQINGgMIFpsLWe9HReeZbDqnfvhRQEUcN16rnmsImqVmCviLKKJM/s1600/Kapaleeswarar+Koil,+Mylapore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMvYdD56sMu6evpFDI3zx6KjqaDuhKSfYdcLL0dDaaHQTccfiXpdob_FSBZ2Niyidsy2PngivTMnkQf2n7iJdiV_yQINGgMIFpsLWe9HReeZbDqnfvhRQEUcN16rnmsImqVmCviLKKJM/s320/Kapaleeswarar+Koil,+Mylapore.jpg" width="258" /></a><br />
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Chennai, which was known as Madras until 1996, celebrates its founder's day on the 22<sup>nd</sup>
of August every year. It suddenly occurred to us that by visiting
different locations within the city we at CWA were actually
celebrating Chennai/Madras round the year. We therefore presented our work
and several of us spoke about our activities at a function held as
part of the Madras Day celebration this year. The event was very
well received and soon after that we found our membership surging.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9I8tKXxyVZcCpjZY55VVXbISAwcC6tS4W88xljGCsO5RAiCOLda57Vmt7uEmQc9r7ZaG4eqLKiLfJmDmwl5WP35JyW2StQkHmi0oh45LN_OLCn5ax4S60zfdqiWBqAqMeynlbYsDdq-M/s1600/SBI,+Rajaji+Salai,+Chennai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9I8tKXxyVZcCpjZY55VVXbISAwcC6tS4W88xljGCsO5RAiCOLda57Vmt7uEmQc9r7ZaG4eqLKiLfJmDmwl5WP35JyW2StQkHmi0oh45LN_OLCn5ax4S60zfdqiWBqAqMeynlbYsDdq-M/s320/SBI,+Rajaji+Salai,+Chennai.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
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Earlier we had a membership of around 30 or 40 with
not more than ten members ever getting together at one time. Now our
membership is in three digits and we regularly get around 30 persons
participating every Sunday morning. The participants vary in age from
6 to 60+ and it is therefore now a challenge to choose locations
which will meet a variety of sketching interests.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPwkdKXaKdfy1cg4pA1slFRrgb_zimGR8eHwZZp-sjoeYyazHPr0Oqy3g07i7eIEKBQeKoIClYMSYrQMJbEynJHIfHFWVi-wBTYjL9Bge0ERGnX_540_NrXrdW5bAdtdiTEUm4r4a2bXA/s1600/Valluvar+Kottam+chariot+-+mixed+media.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPwkdKXaKdfy1cg4pA1slFRrgb_zimGR8eHwZZp-sjoeYyazHPr0Oqy3g07i7eIEKBQeKoIClYMSYrQMJbEynJHIfHFWVi-wBTYjL9Bge0ERGnX_540_NrXrdW5bAdtdiTEUm4r4a2bXA/s320/Valluvar+Kottam+chariot+-+mixed+media.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
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So far we have visited a number of locations within
our city and our sketching itself has been confined to only a
pre-lunch session every Sunday. But I think the group is now ready to
spread its wings. We are considering locations outside Chennai and
perhaps one day we will even think of journeying overnight to our
sketching locations.</div>
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Starting from the top these are 1. A corner of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Post_Office,_Chennai">General Post Office Building</a> on Rajaji Salai ("Salai" means "Road"). 2, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapaleeshwarar_Temple">Kapaleeswarar Temple</a>, at Mylapore. 3. The State Bank of India Building on Rajaji Salai. 4. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valluvar_Kottam">Valluvar Kottam</a> at Nungambakkam.</div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com4Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India13.0524139 80.25082459999998712.5573929 79.605377599999983 13.547434899999999 80.896271599999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-76098432345060968132013-05-30T20:27:00.000+05:302013-05-30T20:27:03.424+05:30Chennai Weekend Clickers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGiUx5TQB00GMEbUILosvv_-gf4WpHLIgkxEMShwY2sNSVGNqRUTIl-TIcfjpnSHW6bKu28zrWW6jdh5qzHugXdvwXSqNl-fWNt96KiZsoFwvyW017QRimCVckrUJZFxA20KjDDDlD7Cg/s1600/Quick+sketch+based+on+a+Chennai+Weekend+Clicker%2527s+photograph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGiUx5TQB00GMEbUILosvv_-gf4WpHLIgkxEMShwY2sNSVGNqRUTIl-TIcfjpnSHW6bKu28zrWW6jdh5qzHugXdvwXSqNl-fWNt96KiZsoFwvyW017QRimCVckrUJZFxA20KjDDDlD7Cg/s320/Quick+sketch+based+on+a+Chennai+Weekend+Clicker%2527s+photograph.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/c-w-c/">The Chennai Weekend Clickers</a> (CWC) is a group of photo enthusiasts who meet and go on photo shoots together every Sunday in and around Chennai. I am not sure when this group was formed but for the last three years they have held exhibitions of their members' best photographs of the year. For the year 2013 their exhibition was held at the Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai early in Dec. It was a very popular exhibition and very well attended.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL4S3MAoUoj-mn81CdpJmlCL15jnbGeWjZddhSo45NNFgkBTeLidKfSXqp6m7SlFK6rzGkjqiRPUnOaUcm0RgjjXQPwzr6iGBMS1s70zHyPhkJLyYosFxwFUQuxoRcT7Ret49sZ6GrvW0/s1600/Quick+sketch+based+on+a+photograph+by+a+Chennai+Weekend+Clicker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL4S3MAoUoj-mn81CdpJmlCL15jnbGeWjZddhSo45NNFgkBTeLidKfSXqp6m7SlFK6rzGkjqiRPUnOaUcm0RgjjXQPwzr6iGBMS1s70zHyPhkJLyYosFxwFUQuxoRcT7Ret49sZ6GrvW0/s200/Quick+sketch+based+on+a+photograph+by+a+Chennai+Weekend+Clicker.jpg" width="140" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://muralidharanalagar.blogspot.in/"><b>Muralidharan Alagar</b></a>, from my sketching group at <a href="http://penciljammers.com/"><b>PencilJammers</b></a>, is also an avid photographer and a member of CWC. He was therefore able to get us permission to do some spot sketching of photographs that caught our fancy and also permission to post our sketches online on the understanding that we would do only quick sketches and not very detailed ones.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiapgx6J72W1dzXcQdTbOzuGpTlwZso0yawlQ8gnRidqgLeTh05jg9HKxzi0pcy2FZtCmqPtEH7F9BUFxcE1H3zQAHLtTCics6AE9GdE2Cutb7ittRQqjFmeq54zJ7ZfdJ-iMb0lWI0YBI/s1600/Quick+sketch+based+on+Pradeep+Sekar%2527s+photograph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiapgx6J72W1dzXcQdTbOzuGpTlwZso0yawlQ8gnRidqgLeTh05jg9HKxzi0pcy2FZtCmqPtEH7F9BUFxcE1H3zQAHLtTCics6AE9GdE2Cutb7ittRQqjFmeq54zJ7ZfdJ-iMb0lWI0YBI/s320/Quick+sketch+based+on+Pradeep+Sekar%2527s+photograph.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><br />There were around 200 photographs on exhibit by about 40 photographers and we had a wonderful time, first viewing and admiring the work on display and then picking the ones to sketch. We PencilJammers also spent some time chatting, comparing notes with one another and interacting with a number of visitors who found our sketching interesting and wanted to chat us up. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIMA1M7zczDcAdVTHBVZR0GsaC6GnRj-_tapZYIm57dnrxsiupeQ0DBJoDsrlV3SmJ1AteUecrx3xnXsCpuEnMv4-yXbpgkIX_xPZFW3mu7y_SXylu1I5nDSmc8Dcrm-6tzHtQ2ba7Sc/s1600/Quick+sketch+based+on+Parthasarathy+SK%2527s+photograph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIMA1M7zczDcAdVTHBVZR0GsaC6GnRj-_tapZYIm57dnrxsiupeQ0DBJoDsrlV3SmJ1AteUecrx3xnXsCpuEnMv4-yXbpgkIX_xPZFW3mu7y_SXylu1I5nDSmc8Dcrm-6tzHtQ2ba7Sc/s320/Quick+sketch+based+on+Parthasarathy+SK%2527s+photograph.jpg" width="320" /></a>We spent around three hours at the exhibition,but probably only a couple of hours actually sketching. During this time I managed to do nine sketches, directly in ink, and then added some charcoal shading later at home. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt_WlIx7FUh00Exo1qTqSwFEQ_PsB-0zRI460SJufTNlUp12XIopYgXQOu_5JTTZt-vzlUMoMk-jxIV1YZbtWIaQOsA4hhIZztmASuMnbaAPhIe0fi8sR0vKVgxQMVffqBRZ81OH_L9Lg/s1600/Quick+sketch+based+on+Rakesh+JV%2527s+photograph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt_WlIx7FUh00Exo1qTqSwFEQ_PsB-0zRI460SJufTNlUp12XIopYgXQOu_5JTTZt-vzlUMoMk-jxIV1YZbtWIaQOsA4hhIZztmASuMnbaAPhIe0fi8sR0vKVgxQMVffqBRZ81OH_L9Lg/s320/Quick+sketch+based+on+Rakesh+JV%2527s+photograph.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqx6tB3sIp7-lLzEUcuw1WhkPf3iNZv_gdPE23QefEZV4fDuksRLODvFErfkj1H6BklPs96rmuUusW6yiM1uyojlLF62N1eIOi3wD3AujcuI0AQf1nF5LApQe4aRrKdBS2cs_5rMyCz8E/s1600/Quick+sketch+based+on+Vimal+Prakash%2527s+photograph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqx6tB3sIp7-lLzEUcuw1WhkPf3iNZv_gdPE23QefEZV4fDuksRLODvFErfkj1H6BklPs96rmuUusW6yiM1uyojlLF62N1eIOi3wD3AujcuI0AQf1nF5LApQe4aRrKdBS2cs_5rMyCz8E/s200/Quick+sketch+based+on+Vimal+Prakash%2527s+photograph.jpg" width="200" /></a>Until a couple of months earlier I had done very little sketching in public and on location. I used to sketch at home, mainly using reference photographs, and liked to take my time doing it. But since joining PenciJammers in late-September 2013 I had begun to like sketching in public, on location, and also directly in ink. I had also been attempting, during this time, to sketch quickly and in a somewhat loose style. As a result, I particularly enjoyed this sketching experience immensely. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjady0OBdUwnf8GwUOV1GkF7XHj026JFwdyynozNcGj4D9kPG3lIFBdhZjFcx_OQQ_ukGh1U3xXMOKSjS9MEAOeeJ3mj_gx8rbqYL5upH5-c8FfoM7vdxkszyUztCB6ioM9Dn5R1YqL4MY/s1600/Quick+sketch+based+on+a+photograph+by+Vimal+Prakash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjady0OBdUwnf8GwUOV1GkF7XHj026JFwdyynozNcGj4D9kPG3lIFBdhZjFcx_OQQ_ukGh1U3xXMOKSjS9MEAOeeJ3mj_gx8rbqYL5upH5-c8FfoM7vdxkszyUztCB6ioM9Dn5R1YqL4MY/s320/Quick+sketch+based+on+a+photograph+by+Vimal+Prakash.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com2Thousand Lights West, Thousand Lights, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India13.064842195771664 80.25467144603271713.060975195771665 80.249628946032715 13.068709195771664 80.259713946032718tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-77263238663831719142013-05-26T20:02:00.000+05:302013-05-26T20:02:24.051+05:30Semmozhi Poonga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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While Bengaluru (Bangalore) has the reputation of being a garden city and is known for its beautiful gardens and trees Chennai, though not known for its tree cover, is also surprisingly green. Many of its roads and streets are lined with trees offering a lot of shade. But unfortunately these trees are not well kept. Chennai is also an extremely pedestrian-unfriendly city and therefore although the streets are shaded, the people out on the streets cannot enjoy a leisurely walk at any time of the day.<br /><br />Chennai also has between 250 and 350 parks which are supposed to be maintained by Chennai Corporation. In fact many of them are not at all maintained, but this is something that is improving of late. The three largest parks in the city are the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guindy_National_Park"><b>Guindy National Park</b></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmozhi_Poonga"><b>Semmozhi Poonga</b></a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tholkappia_Poonga"><b>Tholkappia Poonga</b></a>. The last two are recent additions to Chennai's park-list although both were already large open lung spaces of the city.<br /><br />My sketching group from <a href="http://penciljammers.com/"><b>PencilJammers</b></a> visited Semmozhi Poonga several times in the space of a few months. I was with them on only one of these visits and I found it to be a very pleasant place to visit. But my wife who had been there about a year earlier was very critical of the poor upkeep and felt that the place was being allowed to go to seed. Hopefully the people in charge will realise that they owe it to the public to preserve such spaces in pristine condition.<br /><br />At Semmozhi Poonga I started my first sketch sitting at a shady spot, but unfortunately I had not taken the sun path into consideration. I soon found myself out of the shade and sitting directly under the hot sun. Fortunately I had already completed the skeleton of the sketch. I therefore packed up and completed that sketch at home. </div>
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Meanwhile the others in my sketching group had selected a spot in the park that offered multiple sketching options and were engaged in a discussion on different approaches to sketching. I joined them and decided to experiment with a loose and quick gestural sketch based on suggestions from my friend <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01330309196157676681"><b>Ganapathy Subramaniam (GS)</b></a>. Though new to this way of approaching a sketch I was quite pleased with result.</div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com2Semmozhi Poonga, GN Chetty Rd, Ellaiamman Colony, Teynampet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600086, India13.050441 80.25129889999993813.046574 80.246256399999936 13.054307999999999 80.25634139999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-13741989185313247072013-05-22T22:52:00.000+05:302013-05-22T22:52:09.428+05:30Figure And Portrait Sketching At Cholamandal Artists Village<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholamandal_Artists%27_Village"><b>Cholamandal Artists Village</b></a> has become the fall-back venue for our sketching group. Apart from each of us choosing subjects of our choice, which we do on some occasions, the resident (professional) artists at Cholamandal arrange one or more still life compositions for us on each of our visits. They also sketch along with us to demonstrate the many ways in which we could explore each subject.<br /><br />On a couple of occasions we also had people sitting for us. The first time this happened the model was a friend of one of our group of sketchers. We were told that he would be coming in a little later and therefore I warmed up by sketching the drapery that had been arranged as the backdrop for a still life composition. </div>
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Once Sumit (our model) arrived, while most of my friends attempted portrait studies I decided to sketch a full figure. I had sketched people from life only on a couple of occasions before this and was therefore quite pleased with the result. I took this photograph of Sumit after I had finished my sketch.</div>
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Some weeks later we had an old man sit for us. This time I tried to draw only his face and I think I did a fair job of it since the old man was very happy with it. That day a reporter from a daily newspaper had come to interview the resident artists at Cholamandal about the Sunday morning sketching sessions that they had been running for a long time and since we PencilJammers happened to be there that day, some of us were also interviewed. I was not interviewed but when the article appeared in the newspaper I was very surprised to find that my sketch had been included in the news report.</div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com2Cholamandal Artists Village, Injambakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600115, India12.922484015227832 80.25131433173828612.920549515227831 80.248792831738285 12.924418515227833 80.253835831738286tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-59208777541716833562013-04-21T16:11:00.000+05:302013-04-21T16:11:28.078+05:30Pencil Jammers at Dakshina Chitra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://dakshinachitra.net/"><b>Dakshina Chitra</b></a> is a heritage village which showcases the art, architecture, crafts, culture, and traditions of South India. It is located on the Southern edge of Chennai on the coastal road to Mamallapuram (formerly known as Mahabalipuram). Dakshina Chitra is a very interesting place, well worth visiting for anyone, and in particular for tourists if they wish to experience a bit of many parts of South India in a short span of time without actually travelling to all the places.<br /><br />My wife, daughter and I are frequent visitors but most of my sketch group friends from PencilJammers were visiting Dakshina Chitra for the first time. They were bowled over by all that was there to see and sketch, and decided that this was yet another place that the group had to visit regularly. You can see a small sample of it <a href="http://penciljammers.com/group/the-photograph/forum/topics/penciljam-dhakshina-chitra-on-14-oct-12"><b>here</b></a>. <br /><br />Villages in South India have a guardian deity at the entrance to the village and in Tamilnadu this deity is known as Ayyanar. Dakshina Chitra too has an Ayyanar Temple for the benefit of its visitors and this is the place that we all met at. But while we were sketching the subjects of our choice, a procession of men in huge colourful masks accompanied by trumpeters and drummers swept past us. We were all very curious and followed them and found that this was a troupe from Karnataka (a neighbouring state in South India) who were there at Dakshina Chitra to perform a traditional masked dance.<br /><br />The dance was very attractive and energetic and at the end of it the dancers took off their masks and rested for a while. Some of my friends sketched the dancers in motion and a few attempted quick portraits when they took a break. I chose to do a quick pen & ink sketch of the masks which the dancers had lined up on chairs while they rested.</div>
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<br />After that we all went back to our orginal spots to continue on the sketches that we had started earlier. I made further progress on a sketch of the Ayyanar Temple which I had started earlier and then had to leave. I completed the sketch later that day at home.</div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com4Dakshina Chitra, Muttukadu, Tamil Nadu, India12.82318341918845 80.24259567260742212.80770091918845 80.222425672607429 12.838665919188449 80.262765672607415tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-15752501975442252012013-04-15T22:46:00.000+05:302013-04-15T22:46:16.883+05:30Dream Of The Black Sun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>I was with the Pencil Jammers once again early in Oct 2012 at <a href="http://cholamandalartistvillage.com/index.html"><b>Cholamandal Artists Village </b></a>and this time we had a large number of children for company as you can see from the pictures <a href="http://penciljammers.com/group/the-photograph/forum/topics/penciljam-cholamandal-artists-village-on-7-oct-12"><b>here</b></a>. The children were merely visiting the village but many of them seemed to like watching us draw. Several came and chatted with us. A few complimented us on our drawings. I was very impressed with how polite they all were and felt very stimulated by their visit.<br /><br />This time I did two sketches. My first was a pen and ink sketch of a sculpture called "Dream of the Black Sun" by ND Rajasekharan. I completed the outline and mapping of contours, light and shadows on location and then worked on increasing the value range at home.</i></div>
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<i>The second is a 30 minute sketch of the still life set up for the day by the Cholamandal artists. Many of the artists gathered there that morning concentrated on the still life. But I was keen to see what I could manage in half an hour using just one pen and that too without any graphite pre-drawing. I therefore sketched directly with a 2.0 Sakura Calligraphy sketch pen which allows me to vary line weights.</i></div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com2Cholamandal Artists Village, Injambakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600115, India12.9227559 80.252344312.9072794 80.232174300000011 12.9382324 80.2725143tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-25370820875109115832013-03-31T17:44:00.000+05:302013-03-31T17:44:22.047+05:30Pencil Jammers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>There is a story of a snail that had fallen into a deep pit trying to climb out. It needed to climb thirty feet to get to safety. Every day it would manage to slowly crawl 3 feet up, but during the night it would slither most of the way back. My condition seems to be somewhat like this snail's in my attempts to improve my sketching and drawing skills. </i><br /><br /><i>Although my desire has been very strong ever since it was rekindled about a dozen years ago, every year I go through many months when I do not find the time or energy to draw. I have tried many different ploys to ensure that I do not slide backwards during these periods but so far they have only helped to a limited extent. My attempts to do at least one lunch time sketch every day worked only for a while. </i><br /><br /><i>However, around the middle of September last year I received an invitation from <a href="http://www.animationillustrationart.com/"><b>Ganapathy Subramaniam (GS)</b></a>, whom I had met online at <a href="http://www.wetcanvas.com/"><b>WetCanvas</b></a>, to join him on <a href="http://penciljammers.com/"><b>Pencil Jammers</b></a>. Unlike many other art communities on the net PJ encourages its members to meet and sketch, draw, & paint together on location and in workshops (which members are free to organise on their own). In Chennai and Bangalore interested members meet every Sunday to sketch on location at various venues and then post their work in appropriate threads on the Pencil Jammers website.</i><br /><br /><i>As a result, from mid-September 2012 onwards, until a couple of months ago, I have been fairly regular at these Sunday morning sketching meets. I have been busy through the rest of the week and found no time to draw, but at each of these sessions I have tried to do one main sketch of about 90 minutes duration and a couple of quick sketches in about 30 minutes each at each venue. In this post I am sharing some of the sketches from the first two meets that I attended.</i> <i>Most parts of these sketches were completed on location, but I worked a bit more on each of them at home, mainly to add to the shading, and to darken some of the values through cross hatching</i><br />
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<br /><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholamandal_Artists%27_Village"><b>Cholamandal</b></a>, is an artists' village in Chennai. I had been there many times to look at artwork and to attend films on art based topics, but for my friends in Pencil Jammers this was their first time there and they were charmed by the ambience of the place. As a result our group has visited the place several times since then.</i><br />
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<br /><i>I had been to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guindy_National_Park#Guindy_Snake_Park_and_Children.27s_Park"><b>Children's Park</b></a> almost forty years ago and had thought that it was a very drab place. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much it had developed since then and with its current popularity. Our group got there at around 9 am but within a couple of hours the place was quite crowded with visitors. I have discovered that I do not mind being watched while I draw, but that is not the case with many others and some of my companions decided that it was time to quit the place.. </i><br /><br />.<br /><br /><br /></div>
Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-41515149760024017032013-01-13T20:05:00.000+05:302013-01-13T20:26:52.529+05:30Mylapore Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chennai
is considered one of the cultural centres of India. And, if there is
one part of Chennai that embodies these more than the others do, it
is Mylapore. While Chennai is said to date back to the 17th century
(1644) when The East India Company established Fort St. George,
Mylapore was already a large settlement then. There are records of
settlements around Mylapore predating the birth of Christ. And,
before the British, Mylapore was occupied by the Portuguese and the
French.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
weekend we are witnessing the 11th edition of the Mylapore Festival,
when the entire community comes together to put up a four day street
festival celebrating the music, art, food, traditions and culture of
the place. From a fairly sedate start this festival has grown in
popularity over the years. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
kolam competition is one of the very popular events during this
festival. Kolam is a drawing made on a swept and washed floor using
white rice powder. Traditionally it is drawn early every morning by
Hindu women in front of their homes. Last year I watched as a part of
a very busy street was cordoned off to hold this event. These are
some of the photographs taken then.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipWP8crv-G6xoccVA-s28OO6I257DJ3YLCwJ-5K5eVJAWYpSE7eJkuc8kOXMlkNB8n0hqYF39ptzUGPtlQ7zRLGItBmcuKktjoOpO5AkgrmW5p714uDEBEUvu030cMy2JmkoFTlicucNk/s1600/A+house+to+the+South+of+Kapaleeswarar+Koil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipWP8crv-G6xoccVA-s28OO6I257DJ3YLCwJ-5K5eVJAWYpSE7eJkuc8kOXMlkNB8n0hqYF39ptzUGPtlQ7zRLGItBmcuKktjoOpO5AkgrmW5p714uDEBEUvu030cMy2JmkoFTlicucNk/s320/A+house+to+the+South+of+Kapaleeswarar+Koil.jpg" width="273" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Amongst
many other things Mylapore is famous for its Kapaleeswarar Koil a
Shiva temple. There are references to this temple that date back to
the 7th century, but these references place the temple on the
seashore over a kilometer away from the present location of the
temple. Additionally the present temple reflects the architecture of
the 16th century although there are inscriptions within the temple
dating back to the 12th century. The explanation for this paradox
seems to be that the old temple by the seashore was razed to the
ground by the Portuguese to build the Santhome Cathedral and that the
Kapaleeswarar Koil was then rebuilt by the kings of Vijayanagaram in
the 16th century.</span> </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">These
are two sketches that I made on location a few weeks ago. The first
is of the entrance to the temple with a mandapam (hall) in the
foreground. And the other sketch is of a house just outside the
temple which caught my eye because it had its own mini-temple. I
later discovered that it was the house of one of the senior priests
of the temple.</span></span></div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com3Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Sankarapuram, Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India13.033579742680759 80.27001657752384713.03261274268076 80.268756077523847 13.034546742680758 80.271277077523848tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-56685982563618379362012-09-02T20:34:00.000+05:302012-09-02T20:34:16.779+05:30Grand Island Lighthouse<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>WetCanvas is one of several art communities that I am a member of. Currently I am active in the pen and ink forum where we have a pen & ink project every month. Val, our host, painstakingly selects some wonderful reference photographs on a variety of subjects and all of us use these to come up with our own versions which could be entirely in pen & ink, or ink washes, or even ink and other media. </i></div>
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<i>For August 2012 Harry Seiler's very nice photograph of the Grand Island Lighthouse (also known as the Grand Island East Channel Light) in Michigan, USA was one of the reference pictures. (There were ten reference photographs in all and you can see all of them <a href="http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1205212"><b>here</b></a>.) I did two different versions of it. My first one was a 10 minute ball point pen <a href="http://racingagainsttheclock.blogspot.in/2012/09/grand-island-lighthouse-thumbnail.html"><b>thumbnail</b></a> while the one that I have posted here took me around two and a half hours. </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2kj6dj6Fbuvh3yDxvB3rabsPm87ezawSIVgF7caTF3dpG97nCE3fjPcx5_zTCU0R9tg2zmZTwfUK8kL7CMPXLMBPRNjPG1WxqCuCaVYr3Q2nQNtVByGMhYK14NafVaBQBWs_Koa5if78/s1600/Grand+Island+Lighthouse+-+pen+&+ink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2kj6dj6Fbuvh3yDxvB3rabsPm87ezawSIVgF7caTF3dpG97nCE3fjPcx5_zTCU0R9tg2zmZTwfUK8kL7CMPXLMBPRNjPG1WxqCuCaVYr3Q2nQNtVByGMhYK14NafVaBQBWs_Koa5if78/s320/Grand+Island+Lighthouse+-+pen+&+ink.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i> In the <a href="http://racingagainsttheclock.blogspot.in/2012/09/grand-island-lighthouse-thumbnail.html"><b>thumbnail</b></a> I had concentrated only on the massing of the lighthouse but in this one I focussed on the lighthouse and tried to get a slightly out of focus effect for both the background and the foreground. After I had completed it I felt that I should have used thinner lines for the background but by then I was stuck with the result of my heavy handed approach. That unfortunately is the way it is with pen & ink.</i></div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-29193975736961068602012-06-23T20:08:00.000+05:302012-06-23T20:11:20.062+05:30My Second Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2eVYiRF3hN3vgNgNJfAXYyLlPRJWFOqoOJI3dSlynounVyYg2oN0mahFoYXr8Pn_EJx0U8Q2R5msr8dZb26fplZGUr2D6Ut9w9cQhrmaQ8S4GCQumyigUEgpbv8QQIo8oHDwmPoCuCDk/s1600/280512+-+30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2eVYiRF3hN3vgNgNJfAXYyLlPRJWFOqoOJI3dSlynounVyYg2oN0mahFoYXr8Pn_EJx0U8Q2R5msr8dZb26fplZGUr2D6Ut9w9cQhrmaQ8S4GCQumyigUEgpbv8QQIo8oHDwmPoCuCDk/s320/280512+-+30.jpg" width="320" /></a>I am very glad to say that from the day I decided to do it (towards the end of May 2012) I have been quite regular with my "30 minute" sketches. In fact so far, on the days when I have not had the time to sketch during my lunch break, I have come home and managed to do one to keep going at almost a sketch a day. And I have been posting these sketches in my second blog to track my progress.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGXT8aYw_NGqZzCGgoTXZsn9nwOjNuCLVcJOxvb3r8UXB1ZUEpDbcyuLJgHQvnW4Kwqng62L_zby_RCnUrbvFsJlRI817vEBEJHTgZZHCPsT4p275wtRgrstFCMpAF-Xq42dx8GpQdH8/s1600/110612+-+30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGXT8aYw_NGqZzCGgoTXZsn9nwOjNuCLVcJOxvb3r8UXB1ZUEpDbcyuLJgHQvnW4Kwqng62L_zby_RCnUrbvFsJlRI817vEBEJHTgZZHCPsT4p275wtRgrstFCMpAF-Xq42dx8GpQdH8/s320/110612+-+30.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikarIqf2fczQCPn8-viAe-b6PyVjLuhkmIDdfqVckif9WeIgDaS-CrBwEV-4snT4DXWumoS_odMW5Um0yPqptUWU6E4xfWQQCjLtP-dcdy3U_8sQ-Dz5blAnBqKe4LRBYjMvDxzboZQnI/s1600/T+W+A+J.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikarIqf2fczQCPn8-viAe-b6PyVjLuhkmIDdfqVckif9WeIgDaS-CrBwEV-4snT4DXWumoS_odMW5Um0yPqptUWU6E4xfWQQCjLtP-dcdy3U_8sQ-Dz5blAnBqKe4LRBYjMvDxzboZQnI/s320/T+W+A+J.jpg" width="320" /></a> I am hoping to achieve two things through this exercise: 1. To improve my quick sketching skills. My aim is to be able to sketch fast without sacrificing details (or at least the illusion of details) and to do that with a refined technique, and 2. To develop my watercolour painting skills.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfrmXeg-dGGECur68drDXVd87r9SClIVVpD7oYsNT9qpSNhJGXl4YBd3XtldBpB79BA9U2PzVo7b32N4BVTACKL9W3WH-5k3n94b82XGhHUHnoeAGUZ9Bwvr0yUTGnW60EK5pP-Gn0fk/s1600/On+Lake+Orta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfrmXeg-dGGECur68drDXVd87r9SClIVVpD7oYsNT9qpSNhJGXl4YBd3XtldBpB79BA9U2PzVo7b32N4BVTACKL9W3WH-5k3n94b82XGhHUHnoeAGUZ9Bwvr0yUTGnW60EK5pP-Gn0fk/s320/On+Lake+Orta.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Last Saturday I kept to my resolve to paint every weekend and did one small watercolour sketch - a landscape in monocolour. This one took me about 30 minutes but, when it comes to painting, I have decided not to impose time restrictions on myself since I will only be doing it at home and probably only on weekends. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYnr1K1xtHVht90IvHrNFs9boZG36JVCQ4eLpoc2VF8nNzZu93svgmsOTCsXoR1CWa9YW4VkFQBavE6YLx_OuU_ehisg2Kh1xsHfazccGn2DrnDR1IPM7EbS-E-dDlmCNHFTO2_Q52SZ0/s1600/Mother+and+child+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYnr1K1xtHVht90IvHrNFs9boZG36JVCQ4eLpoc2VF8nNzZu93svgmsOTCsXoR1CWa9YW4VkFQBavE6YLx_OuU_ehisg2Kh1xsHfazccGn2DrnDR1IPM7EbS-E-dDlmCNHFTO2_Q52SZ0/s200/Mother+and+child+2.jpg" width="177" /></a></div>
I had actually planned to do another one on Sunday but wasn't able to do that. Hopefully I will manage a cople of watercolours this weekend. Let me see...<br />
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I propose to share some (but not all) of these quick sketches on this blog too on a weekly basis. If you would like to see the rest of these quick sketches, or if you would like to know anything about the sketches that you see here, you could check out my second blog, <a href="http://racingagainsttheclock.blogspot.in/">Racing Against The Clock</a>. </div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-44949531722733729862012-06-09T18:10:00.001+05:302013-04-28T19:39:08.065+05:30From Pen & Ink Projects and Challenges to Lunchtime Sketches<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As I mentioned in my last post it was around 2007 or 2008 that I decided to concentrate on pen & ink. I was already a member at one online art community (<a href="http://www.wetcanvas.com/">WetCanvas</a>) and I joined one more (<a href="http://community.how-to-draw-and-paint.com/">I Draw & Paint</a>) around this time. At both of these I started participating regularly in the monthly pen & ink projects/challenges. The drawings that you see here are some of those that I did between 2008 and early 2012 at these two communities. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYOizoPKAtHUIJw9aODJqUGg8-1yV9fLDvZ6_gfCGckfy9l3HzOuofdYGuvhj82pKFua_rOdkVO-IY36jXbUiqfEBFQkSLVgwibvewRLzRGDA1pSdnoC6aL-T_bYOkxVLc6OfKK9nACEM/s1600/WDT+290810+-+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYOizoPKAtHUIJw9aODJqUGg8-1yV9fLDvZ6_gfCGckfy9l3HzOuofdYGuvhj82pKFua_rOdkVO-IY36jXbUiqfEBFQkSLVgwibvewRLzRGDA1pSdnoC6aL-T_bYOkxVLc6OfKK9nACEM/s200/WDT+290810+-+1.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigMeaDvCRDxfQeK3xFq1jR0GbTObl0DxESjQISJhLuu0p1TY8FZGHDucfsYEVvSAw98U0qqDKHsY7_XaSZs0rXHhP6_Lu734g8tO3sN10BDKenIwb-fBFyLpKmgy_TVunyVRXv5M72wzQ/s1600/Koi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigMeaDvCRDxfQeK3xFq1jR0GbTObl0DxESjQISJhLuu0p1TY8FZGHDucfsYEVvSAw98U0qqDKHsY7_XaSZs0rXHhP6_Lu734g8tO3sN10BDKenIwb-fBFyLpKmgy_TVunyVRXv5M72wzQ/s200/Koi.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitSB_gUbAxyzgY_7O0Ax4E9q2HQV_yJYvcwaSiLcTGQiR5vH5LLSdO1VKznGOzIGUwlLVzAeeIgg75DLdd6aM8n1U5bXuUnNyWutXcMYS-dKD1NugznfilV3piDWb59ZaZaYnHvnTtR34/s1600/Ocean+Worshipers+July+2010-a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitSB_gUbAxyzgY_7O0Ax4E9q2HQV_yJYvcwaSiLcTGQiR5vH5LLSdO1VKznGOzIGUwlLVzAeeIgg75DLdd6aM8n1U5bXuUnNyWutXcMYS-dKD1NugznfilV3piDWb59ZaZaYnHvnTtR34/s200/Ocean+Worshipers+July+2010-a.jpg" width="200" /></a> Although I am fairly good at self motivation, I cannot overstate how much being a part of these two communities has motivated me to draw and has helped me develop my skills.<br />
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During this time I also tried my hand at watercolour a few times. These two were done late in 2010 and unfortunately, due to my lack of confidence in wielding a brush and the effort involved in setting up to paint, I have not put in the necessary time and effort since then to take my painting skills any further. Hopefully that will change now because I have drawn up an action plan to which I am publicly committing myself.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4DVSQTJPExAAHPGjIRJWbXU1lUADi6UvfmonrvHY9Idv7b-MdyHf4qKSvQ9wS8xNvcOFYmTOAKOOkEhSZsQyNc0FSfWHFxAYOwKhXc-JauaTOSIxWQu-7xF6PNp9_Gm-f6-oFrlchxM/s1600/The+long+verandah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4DVSQTJPExAAHPGjIRJWbXU1lUADi6UvfmonrvHY9Idv7b-MdyHf4qKSvQ9wS8xNvcOFYmTOAKOOkEhSZsQyNc0FSfWHFxAYOwKhXc-JauaTOSIxWQu-7xF6PNp9_Gm-f6-oFrlchxM/s200/The+long+verandah.jpg" width="128" /></a><br />
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During the three months and more since my last post I spent hardly any time painting, drawing or even sketching. Finally, about two weeks ago, I decided to at least do one lunchtime sketch at work each day and post it in <a href="http://racingagainsttheclock.blogspot.in/">a new blog</a> (to track my progress). I am happy to say that I have been fairly regular so far at this. Starting today I also plan to play with colour over the weekends and see where that takes me.<br />
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My thanks, once again, for your good wishes and encouragement.</div>
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-24648816046446095042012-02-20T01:27:00.000+05:302013-04-28T19:40:22.922+05:30From Graphite & Charcoal to Pen & Ink<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I enjoy drawing and painting.<br />
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No, I think I should modify and also explain that statement. I draw quite often, though not as often or as much as I would really like to. And, I enjoy drawing. I usually sit down to it after dinner. There have been many occasions when I have been totally bushed at the time of starting. But once I start drawing I lose all track of time and sometimes find that I have been at it much longer than I planned to. Invariably I feel very refreshed after such a session.<br />
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On the other hand, I would very much like to paint, but I paint infrequently. This is partly because I am still very much a beginner at it. Of course, I realise that I will always stay a beginner unless I paint. But the problem is that painting requires more of a setting up than drawing does. If it is watercolour, one needs paints, brushes, a palette or plate or dishes, a water container and so on. And at the end of the day's painting session these have to be cleaned and put away. <br />
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As a result, at least so far, whenever I have mentally tossed a coin to decide whether to paint or draw, the coin has invariably landed in favour of drawing. <br />
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When I took up drawing as a serious hobby about ten years ago I started with graphite and charcoal. My wife Nithi enrolled me in a two week portrait drawing course as a gift. The medium was charcoal & graphite. I attended the classes every evening after work, and stayed up late into the night to complete the assigments. At the end of the two weeks I was hooked and I have stayed hooked.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the portrait drawing course - 1</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the portrait drawing course - 2</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zpE9Arzn5OEnV_FDpddKsriF_h3_qQcJOrcDQHxYCJJghHQpbz0baU1HqAQGsvZLr_lHRVjxIRGSvRVzYKDDJDFJ9EI9gkZkfoEqY05gHw9NW58FW1Euy_WXB-SmAtXuL77GRE5fiHE/s1600/t+c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zpE9Arzn5OEnV_FDpddKsriF_h3_qQcJOrcDQHxYCJJghHQpbz0baU1HqAQGsvZLr_lHRVjxIRGSvRVzYKDDJDFJ9EI9gkZkfoEqY05gHw9NW58FW1Euy_WXB-SmAtXuL77GRE5fiHE/s200/t+c.jpg" width="179" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj81hWqBTqga9autZHVb6W9Wbg8CdHBsfxSmguvhnX46I8wOihEClrdZpdhpOEoPBfhy-KkdEn7Wb9l1BH65sna807YaaVvyyM0fSX3XwAy-EbmtfdypuOwShpuPcQ8rc9k8tX4zkbmK3Q/s1600/Collie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj81hWqBTqga9autZHVb6W9Wbg8CdHBsfxSmguvhnX46I8wOihEClrdZpdhpOEoPBfhy-KkdEn7Wb9l1BH65sna807YaaVvyyM0fSX3XwAy-EbmtfdypuOwShpuPcQ8rc9k8tX4zkbmK3Q/s200/Collie.jpg" width="186" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTCs6Qg1seC2P7JzCLbIVFD8NSfL48ZyVfpeGvj-kqCdDELRABYfLkJhyphenhyphenhFWtUZXkcsRrmzHqFpklWVwR52CZuP6Dueyqn5o10Oj-TAP53QrF3FwyFhMF0QtNP_p8kqJvmdYyiVWm1-0s/s1600/JayD's+hand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTCs6Qg1seC2P7JzCLbIVFD8NSfL48ZyVfpeGvj-kqCdDELRABYfLkJhyphenhyphenhFWtUZXkcsRrmzHqFpklWVwR52CZuP6Dueyqn5o10Oj-TAP53QrF3FwyFhMF0QtNP_p8kqJvmdYyiVWm1-0s/s200/JayD's+hand.jpg" width="190" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three Pears - vine charcoal</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTFZwOkJmHXzCS9AFexd8Uw4ykq9l8ru7hvNS-FrY3kQuZ05keURaRAIjAqrF3MeELOk0pMsERZpKv-MWkm2BjNHd6m-91e3uxNVE2ynjYRNJdme6IRdZmFlZVSLBhHwnt5-RclZ4UH0/s1600/Week+7+Personalised+tea-pot+apple+ver2g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTFZwOkJmHXzCS9AFexd8Uw4ykq9l8ru7hvNS-FrY3kQuZ05keURaRAIjAqrF3MeELOk0pMsERZpKv-MWkm2BjNHd6m-91e3uxNVE2ynjYRNJdme6IRdZmFlZVSLBhHwnt5-RclZ4UH0/s200/Week+7+Personalised+tea-pot+apple+ver2g.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmv2RAhmKef4baAzpD3cGzNxSOmuYikMQjK2WvdpE4WHrVfCG5CuIq1dktPiXHtn5ueXkAMtr-tlvaCZKmy93DViDxS9yp_6gkZVgII6SWeVl55srPGa7YeQLRVe-6jK5S4zNIB_htPE8/s1600/Week+23+-+marbles3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmv2RAhmKef4baAzpD3cGzNxSOmuYikMQjK2WvdpE4WHrVfCG5CuIq1dktPiXHtn5ueXkAMtr-tlvaCZKmy93DViDxS9yp_6gkZVgII6SWeVl55srPGa7YeQLRVe-6jK5S4zNIB_htPE8/s200/Week+23+-+marbles3.jpg" width="170" /></a><br />
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But as I started drawing regularly I found even the degree of setting up that a graphite or charcoal drawing requires to be an inhibiting factor for me. I struggled to get the darks that I wanted with graphite. And, protecting the paper and the finished drawing were also issues. As a result I have switched to pen and ink. <br />
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These are a few of my early pen & ink drawings from around 2003 to 2007. They were mainly quick sketches using just one or two pens. During this period graphite was still my main medium, followed by charcoal. I think that it was around 2007 or 2008 that I decided to make pen & ink my main medium.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwzrpEDRuIvWsN7_wVI1R4JNPIOdn2xDHNlUUQ_hiI35T0v3QAmrj526slDWTaXKFHJ8WRl1j_HRn-6stegPUiDxmMI72lNiAQ7uBdG0UORbGK_V-_azBy3eb3NYwVKPu6h9M4BdJkNL0/s1600/lion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwzrpEDRuIvWsN7_wVI1R4JNPIOdn2xDHNlUUQ_hiI35T0v3QAmrj526slDWTaXKFHJ8WRl1j_HRn-6stegPUiDxmMI72lNiAQ7uBdG0UORbGK_V-_azBy3eb3NYwVKPu6h9M4BdJkNL0/s200/lion.jpg" width="196" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSbLtxSkT86u4-KWGJsyeBhSQPMCuspvcdtWZ8vjLQzNSjRIynWefmeSj6v_T3rDICKiI1LbQ7DoA3SIlbTZVD1uawwKrpW-FDJKespPvVvstjjn6yz2Iey6pVDHubPQ9L-7ez2sLiglQ/s1600/1968.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSbLtxSkT86u4-KWGJsyeBhSQPMCuspvcdtWZ8vjLQzNSjRIynWefmeSj6v_T3rDICKiI1LbQ7DoA3SIlbTZVD1uawwKrpW-FDJKespPvVvstjjn6yz2Iey6pVDHubPQ9L-7ez2sLiglQ/s200/1968.jpg" width="150" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Gy7lQuKLkFPENGdCegRJwrPkA3Xbx_hFkyFdJWkKHv6ivOUAgXTfMokHM2jabTKSiZnx03HzR7kTmt6ebFSaJcUQzd909uwjSkAgSXftG8CMd0BBARPDxLjrVCBkExBn8j9E1JhCaaA/s1600/I'm+Not+Giving+Up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Gy7lQuKLkFPENGdCegRJwrPkA3Xbx_hFkyFdJWkKHv6ivOUAgXTfMokHM2jabTKSiZnx03HzR7kTmt6ebFSaJcUQzd909uwjSkAgSXftG8CMd0BBARPDxLjrVCBkExBn8j9E1JhCaaA/s200/I'm+Not+Giving+Up.jpg" width="135" /></a><br />
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The sketch that you see of Mont St. Michael is a study copy of a drawing by Peter Caldwell. I found his book on pen & ink drawing very inspiring.<br />
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Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-33993707051121909232012-02-10T22:41:00.000+05:302012-02-10T22:43:49.436+05:30Mysore, A City Of Tree Lovers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Living conditions have deteriorated badly in most cities in India. Air and noise pollution levels have risen tremendously, as has the volume of traffic. Simultaneously these cities have also become extremely pedestrian unfriendly. In this respect some of the cities that come to mind are Chennai, where I live, and Bangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad, all cities that I am very familiar with. And, I understand from my friends who are as familiar with other cities in India as I am with these, that it is the same sad story with most cities in India.<br />
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Mysore is however one city that seems to have retained its charm. I have been visiting it, though not frequently, over the last fifty plus years. Of course it too has grown and changed during this time, but unlike other cities it has not yet become an unbearably noisy and crowded concrete jungle. Though traffic has increased, many parts of the city are still very walkable, and the pollution level is definitely very much lower than that of other cities. And, although many old buildings have been replaced by bland new ones, this city still retains many fine old garden houses that give Mysore its special character. My wife Nithi and I therefore were very happy to spend a lot of time wandering around on foot. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-oNtcrB9k5zEn_FPD_3hADbOsQA9hhPuzzaScC-dEo_01ch3xHuzcomh2Qe7NgZkXhJpH4z-SecaXe98yVU7bIksEPkbEpsgtM8DjnsZV_UDecPrwGNzl-lt3rRN4-BP5IOdV7Z2XTzY/s1600/Park+entrance,+Mysore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-oNtcrB9k5zEn_FPD_3hADbOsQA9hhPuzzaScC-dEo_01ch3xHuzcomh2Qe7NgZkXhJpH4z-SecaXe98yVU7bIksEPkbEpsgtM8DjnsZV_UDecPrwGNzl-lt3rRN4-BP5IOdV7Z2XTzY/s320/Park+entrance,+Mysore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The people of Mysore seem to hold parks and plant life in special regard. There were several parks close to the hotel where we were staying. One of these parks had a very interesting gateway. On the last day of our stay I decided to go and photograph it so that I could sketch it later. I then noticed several groups of people gathered together within the park, performing rituals near various plants and trees. I continued walking past this particular park and everywhere that I went, in all the parks in that area, there were people of all ages coming in to pay their respects to the trees and plants. I had not seen this happen before in any of the other cities. Maybe this is something unique to the people of Mysore and that perhaps explains why Mysore alone, among all Indian cities, is bucking the trend and preserving some of its charm.</div>
</div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com13Lokaranjan Mahal Rd, Mysuru, Karnataka, India12.30652349895392 76.66379928588867212.30458449895392 76.661331785888677 12.30846249895392 76.666266785888666tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-37681510687845524322011-12-07T00:57:00.002+05:302011-12-10T12:08:40.601+05:30A Well Spent Sunday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"> Sundays are meant for making very optimistic, extravagant plans and then lying in and lazing the day away. At least that is my routine more often than not. However this Sunday was very different. <br />
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To start with I attended a class over the internet (a webinar) that started late Saturday night and ended at 3 am on Sunday. And, after a few hours of sleep we went on a long planned family sketchcrawl. My wife and daughter are very fond of sketching and painting, and this interest is also shared by quite a few in our extended family. We have driven out of Chennai on a few weekend sketching trips in the past but this was the first time that we were doing this within the city. And this time my niece was also with us.<br />
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We had a fun time on Saturday deciding where to go and finally settled on the Marundeeswarar Koil at Thiruvanmiyur, a very old and famous temple very close to our house.We decided to spend around an hour at this venue and then drive down to a cafe for some much needed refreshments and a different type of sketching opportunity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7z7FFea-RlV3n9M1rmyaQDSxfNM4xgGry9ILJvKFL4uFuuuQqCwylXInE21lU3aohVFoSy8AFT2bUz_GpLBS-0O-l8nNHOy6z8M9zJAVdmL9ANSv8VjrIYzn3J7eMH4XO0burbsqTp3I/s1600/Around+Marundeeshar+Temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7z7FFea-RlV3n9M1rmyaQDSxfNM4xgGry9ILJvKFL4uFuuuQqCwylXInE21lU3aohVFoSy8AFT2bUz_GpLBS-0O-l8nNHOy6z8M9zJAVdmL9ANSv8VjrIYzn3J7eMH4XO0burbsqTp3I/s320/Around+Marundeeshar+Temple.jpg" width="234" /></a>One of the problems with South Indian temples is that we cannot wear any footwear inside the temple precincts. The paving is usually in granite and this can sometimes be blistering hot. The four of us broke up and quickly went in search of something sketchworthy, and more importantly a convenient location to do the sketching from. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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I ended up locating something that would not have been my first choice as a subject, but it had the advantage of a really quiet and shaded spot from which I could view it. In fact this spot was so secluded that many people went by without even realising that I was sitting there under some heavy foliage. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPJzVviWlCZyHGpXkNnPBoRfHQggEnNz2csjSpMJWQc3WRDJaSta_FZ__ODtjrOMph9UoUiFA66RbThKODoGX3oQXHWMfIbfJsDiMN38m9_ypQJYuuNaeOoIBgUFJTKxjv4tme-JJVtgI/s1600/Ranjani+%2526+fans+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPJzVviWlCZyHGpXkNnPBoRfHQggEnNz2csjSpMJWQc3WRDJaSta_FZ__ODtjrOMph9UoUiFA66RbThKODoGX3oQXHWMfIbfJsDiMN38m9_ypQJYuuNaeOoIBgUFJTKxjv4tme-JJVtgI/s320/Ranjani+%2526+fans+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgF78FO1QHIA6kq4qxmfKVZetQsppCgQ0foBkkCu58cGnSjSDmVCwrScgwh4a_xkNUfqVVCh5CS42Td39IqKA6kJKRzLe01eIPWLVZnPO6cR4ZL5eAdjDyfhFt2kUUzJHMxNqZiQhhdk/s1600/Kalpana+sketching+inside+Marundeeshar+Koil+precincts+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgF78FO1QHIA6kq4qxmfKVZetQsppCgQ0foBkkCu58cGnSjSDmVCwrScgwh4a_xkNUfqVVCh5CS42Td39IqKA6kJKRzLe01eIPWLVZnPO6cR4ZL5eAdjDyfhFt2kUUzJHMxNqZiQhhdk/s320/Kalpana+sketching+inside+Marundeeshar+Koil+precincts+2.jpg" width="320" /></a>My niece Ranjani plonked herself right along the main walkway and was soon immersed in her sketching quite oblivious to the passersby who paused and gathered behind her to watch her at work. <a href="http://ranj3006.blogspot.com/2011/12/marundeeshwar-temple.html">You can see Ranjani's sketch here.</a><br />
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My daughter Kalpana found a place with shade and a backrest too. It was also a spot that was rather difficult to approach and certainly not convenient for anyone to peer over her shoulder. I am sure that this must have been high on her criteria for a suitable sketching spot. <a href="http://kalpanabalaji.blogspot.com/2011/12/family-sketchcrawl.html">Kalpana's sketch can be seen here.</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_B7xqfo5aIsVs5NrkZoCItk8GIEC2M8jmAJByv4Lb_BHx-_ZOoCxLqb9waC0NlJzZ0kWIFKc6H62CGVIwf35TdR76TJ5qtonzYBkbz-ncItpaMTOWAnVxzy2CbkANe_nDbsQEHpHf8HY/s1600/Nithi+at+Tryst+Cafe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_B7xqfo5aIsVs5NrkZoCItk8GIEC2M8jmAJByv4Lb_BHx-_ZOoCxLqb9waC0NlJzZ0kWIFKc6H62CGVIwf35TdR76TJ5qtonzYBkbz-ncItpaMTOWAnVxzy2CbkANe_nDbsQEHpHf8HY/s320/Nithi+at+Tryst+Cafe.jpg" width="320" /></a> <br />
Nithi, my wife, was not to be seen anywhere. But she is a restless soul and we were sure that she would have finished several sketches in the time that the rest of us take to do even one, and that proved to be the case. <br />
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After we were done at Marundeeswarar Koil we drove a few miles South from the temple to a small but nice cafe called Tryst on the East coast Road. Unfortunately the view from our table did not offer any great sketching opportunities. But we did have a nice time there comparing sketches and having some nice stuff to eat and drink. Between gulps I managed to do this quick sketch of Nithi.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggasuO5iW4lM13AxSpQGPG0XWTCpoax0rFJBO_GQSUjfalCitD9CF7uGu_Z_jewsoOoJq8L4MOPxnYCSiK44OMUiMIymydDZbemtGQb0pQXmgKbaDV9lgWZQf93EMbpr1t2N3rRmxctSw/s1600/Mandapam+facing+the+Amman+shrine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggasuO5iW4lM13AxSpQGPG0XWTCpoax0rFJBO_GQSUjfalCitD9CF7uGu_Z_jewsoOoJq8L4MOPxnYCSiK44OMUiMIymydDZbemtGQb0pQXmgKbaDV9lgWZQf93EMbpr1t2N3rRmxctSw/s320/Mandapam+facing+the+Amman+shrine.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> I am adding this bit on Friday 9th Dec, a couple of days after I had posted my sketches and photos. I finally managed to get Nithi's consent to put up her sketches too. One of her sketches is of a mandapam (shelter) facing the Amman (lady deity) shrine. Her second sketch is of two fruitsellers engaged in conversation. Nithi does these in no time at all and then moves on to other things that catch her attention.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU5jpiV5gORiTQ1a59i4zU_G0t2zun_utJ_NxB9Fr8AKmnAmV2z7sS8hsnUcBYpNmzv7NkTmoZ6QcWmzm9lbcfysoKdCDcxIET-uWgOdNExs0d9hiWwEc4WzP9bvhO__0S7gDjdjxcgnQ/s1600/Outside+the+temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU5jpiV5gORiTQ1a59i4zU_G0t2zun_utJ_NxB9Fr8AKmnAmV2z7sS8hsnUcBYpNmzv7NkTmoZ6QcWmzm9lbcfysoKdCDcxIET-uWgOdNExs0d9hiWwEc4WzP9bvhO__0S7gDjdjxcgnQ/s320/Outside+the+temple.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</div></div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-31449033316928523022011-11-20T15:47:00.000+05:302011-11-20T15:48:35.539+05:30Near The Mysore Palace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">As we were walking from <a href="http://ofthisandthat-vb.blogspot.com/2011/10/sri-jayachamarajendra-art-gallery.html">Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery</a> towards The Mysore Palace my wife and I noticed that there were very few new buildings along the route that we took. Most of the buildings built in the style to resonate with the Mysore Palace had been retained, though they were not well preserved. One of the buildings that we walked past housed a mutt. A mutt or math is a Hindu monastic religious establishment. The sketch that you see here is of this building. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4eZaiuSYc1bUUjngmsNAWHD8jlzrfaeuh1zuUDF0uxcCoCobjY59RBUV0aQHuLt8N0iIiGP7lfhfmvfYCHoUH-pfNObslvIiDO5Kup_0rcwpUfXLvfuhZJAPM4wsojHCUy5pthpagxQ/s1600/Sri+B+S+P+Mutt%252C+Mysore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4eZaiuSYc1bUUjngmsNAWHD8jlzrfaeuh1zuUDF0uxcCoCobjY59RBUV0aQHuLt8N0iIiGP7lfhfmvfYCHoUH-pfNObslvIiDO5Kup_0rcwpUfXLvfuhZJAPM4wsojHCUy5pthpagxQ/s320/Sri+B+S+P+Mutt%252C+Mysore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Most of the buildings however appeared to have been let out for commercial use. Nithi made the observation that one could see a marked difference in the way buildings occupied by a single entity were much better than those rented out to multiple owners. She was right. the buildings with multiple shops were certainly run down and the common spaces and gardens around them were all shockingly unkempt. Moreover the signages were all put up any which way as each shop owner tried to outdo the others.<br />
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In contrast, the buildings occupied by larger organisations looked reasonably well cared for and the gardens surrounding them looked tended. Of course, when the time comes to get a tenant to vacate, it is perhaps easier to persuade a smaller tenant to move. But then, there would be so many of them to deal with. So I guess it cuts both ways.<br />
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One of the buildings that we passed by was occupied by a national telecom comany. I found the building attractive and this is a sketch of the cupolas over it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kqXDO_A5ir88OYw62qd4lP59L35NgCqM_4tcDM5k98ocI4CJpZMdB5so-X2agLliEEtHF0s6J6QFOG-I5xphvA8_6YBVChfRcQue-dQ3SaEJBLoE_ZHw3e4D8tSsb3Zl5ByIK5zRPYQ/s1600/Cupola+over+building+near+Mysore+Palace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kqXDO_A5ir88OYw62qd4lP59L35NgCqM_4tcDM5k98ocI4CJpZMdB5so-X2agLliEEtHF0s6J6QFOG-I5xphvA8_6YBVChfRcQue-dQ3SaEJBLoE_ZHw3e4D8tSsb3Zl5ByIK5zRPYQ/s320/Cupola+over+building+near+Mysore+Palace.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-63889939943190751952011-10-10T19:39:00.000+05:302011-10-10T19:39:12.297+05:30Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, Mysore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Recently my wife Nithi and I went on a brief sketching holiday to Mysore, one of the cleanest cities in India. The weather was extremely kind and it was very pleasant to be outside. We had made up our mind not to do the normal tourist circuit and instead confine ourselves to walking around the shady streets, taking in the streetscape, and streetside activities. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EiQwQpInk0C-IFu923gLdTUD9v5HmwrsP3AXUI8JwYuv3B9yaadGLcaDJwjqKhSo76dGZIsD4_aHKIcTyJtxdsMqKEWGOP7pxI2cTh8w0wmvgNwajKwx44sMNqAy2VDEqutjRrsau_8/s1600/Jaganmohan+Palace%252C+Mysore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EiQwQpInk0C-IFu923gLdTUD9v5HmwrsP3AXUI8JwYuv3B9yaadGLcaDJwjqKhSo76dGZIsD4_aHKIcTyJtxdsMqKEWGOP7pxI2cTh8w0wmvgNwajKwx44sMNqAy2VDEqutjRrsau_8/s320/Jaganmohan+Palace%252C+Mysore.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jaganmohan Palace</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"> However, we were tempted to travel a bit from where we were staying to visit the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery since we had heard that this gallery had a collection of prized paintings and artefacts that was worth seeing. The art gallery is located in the Jaganmohan Palace which was built in 1861 when the original Mysore Palace was gutted in a fire.The royal Wodeyar family used the Jaganmohan Palace as their home from 1861 to 1912 when the construction of the present Mysore Palace was completed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQz-PkD25HzhD11pBdtCBtLG1pqtEEcPBpRcMIIzNQSNv0Xz8gGfBkfU6iu9qSND1s-P_2wz7-dlxra_hCOsmTuMugYwSk23N2QIrQ5J1zbZT6BO_TcMuDJnMRU-29TnjXeayGVs0TwE/s1600/Sri+Jayachamarajendra+Art+Gallery%252C+Mysore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQz-PkD25HzhD11pBdtCBtLG1pqtEEcPBpRcMIIzNQSNv0Xz8gGfBkfU6iu9qSND1s-P_2wz7-dlxra_hCOsmTuMugYwSk23N2QIrQ5J1zbZT6BO_TcMuDJnMRU-29TnjXeayGVs0TwE/s320/Sri+Jayachamarajendra+Art+Gallery%252C+Mysore.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">A visit to the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery is a must for anyone who wishes to learn how not to run a gallery. First of all, the building does not lend itself easily to this usage. The display is spread over three levels (floors) and even on each floor there are level variations where vistors have to negotiate several steps. And, there are no elevators or ramps to negotiate any of these level differences. <br />
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The paintings and artefacts are not displayed to advantage. They are badly positioned with no consideration given to the appropriate distance from which paintings of different sizes should be viewed, and the heights at which they should be hung to be viewer friendly. The lighting is absolutely terrible and is in fact by itself a great source of irritation and an impediment to the viewing of the paintings.<br />
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Worst of all is the condition of the paintings themselves. Many of the paintings appear to be torn and damaged. Some restoration work appears to have been attempted on a few of the paintings, but this has been done very incompetently. Mysore is a place which receives a lot of rainfall and yet there is no protection for the paintings and art objects in this gallery from dust and humidity. <br />
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That morning we had set out from our hotel very eagerly expecting a treat and instead we came away from the gallery feeling very depressed and angry with the gross neglect and inefficency of whoever was in charge of this place.</div></div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-31984780127662295152011-09-25T19:20:00.000+05:302011-09-25T19:23:13.310+05:30A Pit Stop Gone Wrong<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRsD0F74MN2AyHjH8LvOVz718iJrxmAHtC78OWWSX75jRqz258-wU0ttUYFmbx442H7lsOdgwUQNILNKYgPmlrZSB31qEwPR9p0K5qko1XiH9D-I_2UIxoutqjrMKIuX1futN4JpVDOQ/s1600/A+pit+stop+gone+wrong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRsD0F74MN2AyHjH8LvOVz718iJrxmAHtC78OWWSX75jRqz258-wU0ttUYFmbx442H7lsOdgwUQNILNKYgPmlrZSB31qEwPR9p0K5qko1XiH9D-I_2UIxoutqjrMKIuX1futN4JpVDOQ/s320/A+pit+stop+gone+wrong.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was watching the start of this year's Singapore Grand Prix (Formula 1 car racing) when I remembered an unusual incident that took place in this race a few years ago. Although Singapore had been part of the international racing circuit from 1961 onwards, it dropped out in 1973. Formula 1 racing returned only in 2008 as the 15th race of the year. <br />
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The resumption was spectacular. The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix was the first night time Formula 1 race ever, that too on a street circuit, and it made for fantastic viewing. The race was won by Fernando Alonso but it was tainted by an incident that came to be known as "Crashgate". Nelson Piquet, the Renault team's second driver alleged a year later that he had been ordered by his team boss to deliberately crash into the barriers during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to bring the safety car out to give his teammate Alonso an advantage.<br />
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Incidentally the Singapore Grand Prix holds the dubious distinction of having had to bring out a safety car every single year. This year too Schumacher's spectacular crash has ensured that the safety car was indeed brought out.<br />
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The unusual incident that I referred to was Filipe Massa's pitstop during the 2008 race. The crew gave Massa the all clear prematurely and he took off along with part of the rig still attached to his car!!! When he realised what had happened he had to continue driving up to the end of the pit lane and wait there for his crew to come running up where they had to struggle quite a bit to release it. To add insult to injury Massa was slapped with a drive through penalty for unsafe release from the pits.<br />
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Filipe Massa had been leading the race when he initially pitted; he eventually finished 13th.</div></div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-40656249889905926952011-08-15T23:25:00.000+05:302011-08-15T23:25:11.389+05:30Hotel du Parc, Puducherry (formerly known as Pondicherry)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">I enjoy sketching and painting. Generally I use reference pictures and I am quite willing to spend a lot of time over each drawing. But over the last few years I have begun to enjoy sketching on location. However this calls for a different approach. Speed is important, and capturing the essential forms, proportions, perspective, and mood are more important than details.<br />
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Although I would love to sketch on location more often, so far I have been able to do this only when I am on a holiday. One such occasion was on a family holiday to Puducherry last year. Puducherry means "new settlement" and this is how this settlement was known before the French occupied it for over two and a half centuries. During this period it was called Pondicherry and much of the French influence is strongly present in Puducherry even now.<br />
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On our holiday we stayed at Hotel du Parc. This is a small heritage hotel which is very conveniently located in the French Quarter of the town close to the beach, the park, the ashram, and the museum. It is housed in a restored portion of Villa Aroume which was built in early 17th century and served as the residence of several French Governors including Dupleix.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhsDXdd4j5bB0rl5sxELvsqHP_P5nurwXwdGK5vABPCVDY4ma8PGbn78Kvr402gp9NIB-n91VVNhB4a26PHHL-fQ0urXM4IJKnYpuMiyfCxNHPyNUr5DWE2-fQe6OZaMYhR8b3p26crA/s1600/Hotel+du+Parc%252C+Pondy+-+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhsDXdd4j5bB0rl5sxELvsqHP_P5nurwXwdGK5vABPCVDY4ma8PGbn78Kvr402gp9NIB-n91VVNhB4a26PHHL-fQ0urXM4IJKnYpuMiyfCxNHPyNUr5DWE2-fQe6OZaMYhR8b3p26crA/s320/Hotel+du+Parc%252C+Pondy+-+1.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><br />
My first sketch was done sitting at the doorstep of our room looking across the courtyard at the entrance to the room occupied by the other members of our holiday group. I was able to sit in the shade (which is an important consideration in India). And, since this was within the hotel and not in anyone's way, I was left undisturbed for the entire duration of my sketching. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEger-OcuazFUcBYZj6uPOLcR78R184UqutY4dAW1pK40z9q1nbHLA0qGF38EOEZhi5_0Ibgvb7iW_htuTcfEoU4pxvlWU_zMrY8j-WHRjtzNwZ6dB0CaqY2UWH7hF2JHWRtNsa024zQuVE/s1600/Hotel+du+Parc%252C+Pondy+-+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEger-OcuazFUcBYZj6uPOLcR78R184UqutY4dAW1pK40z9q1nbHLA0qGF38EOEZhi5_0Ibgvb7iW_htuTcfEoU4pxvlWU_zMrY8j-WHRjtzNwZ6dB0CaqY2UWH7hF2JHWRtNsa024zQuVE/s320/Hotel+du+Parc%252C+Pondy+-+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>For the second sketch I sat in the courtyard looking out towards the entrance gate. This time I was a bit more exposed, in every sense. I was in the direct path of a lot of the hotel residents and staff, and several of them stopped to look over my shoulder and chat with me. One of them even offered to stand over me with an umbrella and provide me shade.<br />
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While I was busy sketching a young man walked up and very apologetically introduced himself as the architect who had helped convert the old building into a hotel. He happened to be visiting the place.</div><br />
</div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078069155496768875.post-25740693859612298362011-08-01T20:15:00.000+05:302011-09-08T13:24:14.257+05:30The Paris Observatory, Meudon, France<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgybHEw1HYYVv3Eylg903lWmHH3NeL4A8sLJsPlnr83gIFJKUuYT86fOgaT2ux6M1rRZSNxOo2m3oSef-QMAM6_cSQJsNv0ANkrItC3RnsFOadA07LL7L_7LisHdzUVaS6-wRvhFaJ1CKo/s1600/Paris+Observatory%252C+Meudon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgybHEw1HYYVv3Eylg903lWmHH3NeL4A8sLJsPlnr83gIFJKUuYT86fOgaT2ux6M1rRZSNxOo2m3oSef-QMAM6_cSQJsNv0ANkrItC3RnsFOadA07LL7L_7LisHdzUVaS6-wRvhFaJ1CKo/s320/Paris+Observatory%252C+Meudon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My sketch shows the Paris Observatory, located at Meudon on the outskirts of Paris. This is the last sketch in my Tour de France 2010 series. LIke each of the previous 20 sketches in this series, this one too is 12 cm x 9.5 cm (approx. 4.75" x 3.75"). <br />
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The observatory was built in the 17th century under King Louis XIV, and was extended several times in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The most recent additions were made in 1951. <br />
The world's first national almanac was published by the Paris Observatory in the 17th century, and in the mid-19th century the observatory published the first weather maps. In 1913 the Paris Observatory collaborated with the US Naval Observatory to establish the exact longitudinal difference between the two observatories. This was done by exchanging radio signals, with the Paris Observatory using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna.<br />
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The 2010 Tour de France concluded on 25th July 2010, 23 days after the cyclists started from Rotterdam. In all there were 21 days of racing and 2 rest days. Since 1975 the race has finished in Paris at the Champs Elysees. The route into Paris varies every year, but it now concludes with 8 laps of the Champs Elysees. In the past this used to be 10 laps. <br />
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Traditionally the winner of the overall classification (yellow jersey) is settled before this last stage. The wearer of the yellow jersey at the start of the final stage therefore has the luxury of savouring the ride into Paris and has only to ensure that he does not meet with any mishap on the way. But there have been a couple of exceptions to this. <br />
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In 1979 Joop Zoetemelk attacked Bernard Hinault on the last stage, hoping to win enough time to claim the victory. But Hinault chased Zoetemelk down, and beat him for the stage victory and the overall prize.<br />
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In 1989 Laurent Fignon led Greg LeMond by 50 seconds coming into the final stage of the Tour. But that stage was a time trial and therefore, without violating any tradition, LeMond was able to overcome the deficit and win by 8 seconds. (Just imagine...at the end of around 3300 kms of racing only 8 seconds separated the first two riders that year!!!)<br />
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This tradition of not attacking the wearer of the yellow jersey does not extend to the other classifications and on several occasions these have been settled on the last day in thrilling fashion.<br />
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The final stage starts with the race leader's team serving champagne, and there is a lot of joking and relaxed riding. But as the riders approach Paris the pace quickens, and around Champs Elysees the racing is really very intense for the stage victory and to settle the various classifications other than the yellow jersey.<br />
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The final stage of the 2010 Tour de France was won by Mark Cavendish, who became the first winner of consecutive Champs-Élysées stages. The Isle of Man sprinter won five stages in the 2010 Tour, more than any other rider, taking his career tally to 15 stage wins. and this year (i.e. in the 2011 Tour) he once again won 5 stages including the final (Champs Elysees) stage. He certainly deserves his nickname "the Manx Missile".<br />
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For Contador this was his third Tour de France victory, and the second time in a row that Andy Schleck had to finish a step lower than Contador on the winners' podium. Alessandro Petacchi won the sprinters classification (green jersey), Anthony Charteau won the king of the mountains classification (polka dot jersey), Andy Schleck won the best young rider classification (white jersey), and Team RadioShack won the team competition.<br />
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To all of you who have been with me on my virtual journey...... thank you for your patience and encouragement.</div></div>Balaji Venugopalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09330306599666653331noreply@blogger.com7