Category: Blog

Some sketches of the local area.

Christmas Day was a bit different. Sitting by the river, i painted the peaceful waters flowing past. This area is famous for the story of Shiva holding the poison Halahala in his throat, to stop it destroying all of creation. The poison surfaced after the ocean was “churned” revealing divine jewels, and the goddess Lakshmi. Shiva bathed in the Ganges here to soothe himself. Shiva saved the world and became as Nilkanth, or the blue throated one.

Maybe I’ll paint the story some day, but here is a painting i did of Shiva and his blue throat a couple of years ago.

Visited the beautiful `Marble Palace. It’s probably the first place I’ve been where photography is completely banned, and it was so much a nicer experience for it! Rather than tourists swinging on columns or posing in front of the ornate sculptures, you could actually LOOK at the beauty for a change. I was armed with pencil and paper and was able to record the architecture. I have to say there was a look of envy in others eyes that i got to take home images of the place and they didn’t. Yet another reason to draw!

I’ve never visited a temporary aquarium before, and the tunnel that has been built in park circus is rather impressive for a temporary feature. Walking underneath thousands of gallons of water, i just hope it holds!

Trying out the GIF i made from a drawing i imagined of the aquarium.

Practising to draw means you start to look at the world differently, or perhaps start to look at it, in reality for the first time. The texture of the different plastic Christmas trees, the folds of a t-shirt, the colour of a bauble.

Christmas in Kolkata is a funny mix of traditions, edible delicacies and music. It’s a lot of fun and exciting to draw. Last time I was in India i had KFC for Christmas dinner, perhaps I’ll have biryani this time. If only i could find some sprouts…

I noticed using several taxis how interesting the interiors of them were, little worlds where someone stays all day. Little makeshift shrines to Ganesha, Shiva, Allah to name a few. They all had some personality of the driver, some tinsel, a calligraphic Arabic phrase. It was sweet to see these constant reminders of god. We don’t tend to show our religiosity in the UK but I liked these tiny moving shrines ans took a photo of them or a drawing whenever I could.

I ended up in a rather depressing room on first arrival in India, I picked a cheap option, not the cheapest but pretty low on the budget for my trip. But it had no windows. I’m not staying long so I’m not worried about the fact i can’t see outside. But what i didn’t know, until my stay enlightened me was that a hotel with no windows is for (mainly young) couples to visit and have their secret rendezvous’ without the judgements of the outside world looking in on them. Moral of the story, if you’re booking a room on a budget, expect some rather interesting wildlife, and not the kind you’d see out of the window.