Go with the Flow

By  the first quarter of 2017, our family shifted from Mumbai to Singapore. The initial few weeks.... months were quite frustrating for me. It was quite a change for me as I was a busy body in Mumbai and I kind of felt like I was lost in this new environment. Surfing net and lazying became my pass time. That is when I came across all the addictive pour paint videos and art resin videos. I wanted to try the technique too but it had to be in my style. After a few weeks, I did try the technique and I loved it. So after staring at this painting for few months I did two more works in the same style. For a long time I had been contemplating about trying to incorporate other stuff into my work. Here I have used wooden pieces and stuck them onto the canvas. I love the 3D effect the pour paint and the wooden pieces give to the work.

From this painting I got to learn that not everything in life can be controlled. Things do not go according to our plans. Things do not come our way, even if you work hard for it. So what do you do? Just letting go of expectations and going with the flow makes life a lot easier. Some fights are worth fighting and some are not.... To know which ones to fight and which ones to leave will help you win...... 

Title : Go With The Flow - 1

Size : 16 X 16 inches

Medium : Mixed Media ( Acrylics and Wooden pieces)

Year of Execution : 2017

Title : Go With The Flow - 3

Size : 16 X 16 inches

Medium : Mixed Media ( Acrylics and Wooden pieces)

Year of Execution : 2017

Title : Go With The Flow - 3

Size : 12 X 12 inches

Medium : Mixed Media ( Acrylics and Wooden pieces)

Year of Execution : 2017

THE KING

This work was done way back in 2015. It is done on hand made paper. This work was done before my obsession with blue started. It was a phase where i wanted to come out of my monochrome stage and explore colors and yet wanted to keep things simple and light. 

The Knight - 2

The Horse in general is considered as one of the most powerful animal. The poise of a horse, the majestic style of the running horse..... just about everything fascinates me. In the game of Chess, the Knight coin moves in a very peculiar way which I consider totally unique. It can escape from tricky positions, can defeat others using that same move which I feel makes the Knight coin the most powerful coin in the game of Chess. So I keep including horses in my works, or rather I should say  the horse appears in my works itself every now and then.... with or without my knowledge.....

Title : The Knight -2

Size : 12 X 12 inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2017

Gulam

The Pawn or Soldier is a coin which is most effected. The game of Chess is all about the King. The game goes on until the King is safe. All the coins work hard to just save the King and usually the first casualty in the game is the Pawn. Nobody cares how many and when the pawn is sacrificed. It is as if the Pawn is just there for sacrifice.

This painting of mine is a dedication to this common and humble coin, the pawn. Gulam is a Urdu word for slave. 

Title : Gulam

Size : 18 X 24 inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2017

Her and There -1

Geometric Abstraction.....lines, dots, boxes.......

OooooHhhh So fun!!!

Title : Here and There -1

Medium : Acrylic on Canvas

Size :12 X12 inches

Year of Execution : 2016

Circle Of Life - 2

This is also one of my favourite works. I do believe in the term To each his own. For me, if I like the journey as well as the destination then that is joy.  If I do not enjoy the process of painting, then I feel the painting is incomplete. It was in the middle of the night when sudden inspiration struck me and I just poured color on the canvas and created textures on it. Locked it in a room to dry overnight and to keep it away from my naughty cats. Except for the white part, I had absolutely no control over how the texture would come out..... and that is what I liked about this work. It is an extension of one of my earlier work, The King. Again here by bringing more of black and keeping blue to the minimum I wanted to show to myself that I can and should experiment with all colors. One has to observe closely in this painting for the minute details like the chess coins hidden in the white portion. 

Title : Circle of Life -2

Size : 16 X24 inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2017

Roles and Rules

This is probably one of my favourite paintings. I immensely enjoyed the process of painting this one. The controlling quality of the geometric shapes and the free flowing colors inside them gave a kind of pleasure to me while working that I had never experienced before. 

This painting is titled Roles and Rules. I usually let people form their own understanding about my art works. But when I am asked, I do have an explanation to most of my paintings. This painting represents the roles of chess coins in the game and the roles they play. The King is the main coin in the game of chess, hence the height and form and position. The Queen though shorter in size is place a bit higher to show that she controls most things in the game. The horse is placed thus to show its unique ability to jump over  and come out of a tricky place. The first one to fall and the usual suspect who falls in the game of chess is the Pawn. Hence the depiction. I can still goon and on. but I think that this is enough for now.

Title : Roles and Rules

Size 24 X 30 inches

Medium : Acrylic on Canvas

Year of Execution : 2016

It's all about the King

The game of Chess is all about the King. The game goes on until the King is safe. All the coins work hard to just save the King and usually the first casualty in the game is the Pawn. Nobody cares how many and when the pawn is sacrificed. It is as if the Pawn is just there for sacrifice.

This painting of mine is to show the unjust system of our society where it is always the common man who falls when big decisions are made by the authority or the people in power.

As you might have observed, when I started the Chess series, my palette was more of yellow ochre, burnt sienna and the likes. I turned towards blue in 2015. I don't have pictures of many of the earlier blue phase works as some of them got sold or are with friends or packed and stashed away as I did't like them. I still love the blue..... but once in a while to break the monotony of the heavyness of blue, I bring in other colors... Also I really started to play with colors to bring in some textures in my works.

Title : Its all about the King - 2

Size : !2 X 12 inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2017

The Knight

The Horse in general is considered as one of the most powerful animal. The poise of a horse, the majestic style of the running horse..... just about everything fascinates me. In the game of Chess, the Knight coin moves in a very peculiar way which I consider totally unique. It can escape from tricky positions, can defeat others using that same move which I feel makes the Knight coin the most powerful coin in the game of Chess. So I keep including horses in my works, or rather I should say  the horse appears in my works itself every now and then.... with or without my knowledge.....

Title : The Knight

Size : 12 X 12 inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2017

Status: Sold

The Horses

The Horse in general is considered as one of the most powerful animal. The poise of a horse, the majestic style of the running horse..... just about everything fascinates me. In the game of Chess, the Knight coin moves in a very peculiar way which I consider totally unique. It can escape from tricky positions, can defeat others using that same move which I feel makes the Knight coin the most powerful coin in the game of Chess. So I keep including horses in my works or rather I should say the horse itself appears in my works every now and then.... with or without my knowledge.....

Title : The Horses -2

Size : 24 x30 inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2017

Battle

This is not a very good photograph.... 

The game of Chess is all about the King. The game goes on until the King is safe. All the coins work hard to just save the King and usually the first casualty in the game is the Pawn. Nobody cares how many and when the pawn is sacrificed. It is as if the Pawn is just there for sacrifice.

This painting of mine is to show the unjust system of our society where it is always the common man who falls when big decisions are made by the authority or the people in power. Through this painting i also wanted to depict the effects of war... There are always casualties...regardless of defeat or victory.

Title : Its all about the King -3

Size : 24 x30inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2016

Chess

I did this work for my first year MFA exam. It was a spur of the moment idea/execution kinda work. Not a very well thought out painting. But I like that kind of works. I have been planning to work on this idea again but haven't done it so far.... hopefully I will be doing it soon.

The Battle

The game of Chess is all about the King. The game goes on until the King is safe. All the coins work hard to just save the King and usually the first casualty in the game is the Pawn. Nobody cares how many and when the pawn is sacrificed. It is as if the Pawn is just there for sacrifice.

This painting of mine is to show the unjust system of our society where it is always the common man who falls when big decisions are made by the authority or the people in power.

Title : Its all about the King -2

Size : 33 x 38inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2014

It's All About the King

The game of Chess is all about the King. The game goes on until the King is safe. All the coins work hard to just save the King and usually the first casualty in the game is the Pawn. Nobody cares how many and when the pawn is sacrificed. It is as if the Pawn is just there for sacrifice.

This painting of mine is to show the unjust system of our society where it is always the common man who falls when big decisions are made by the authority or the people in power.

Title : Its all about the King -1

Size : 24 x30inches

Medium : Acrylic on canvas

Year of Execution : 2015

The Queen

One of the most powerful coins in the game of chess is ... Of course The Queen

She is the one coin who can move any number of squares vertically, horizontally and diagonally. Yet the game is said to be finished only when the King is gone. The queen has the power and yet everything revolves around the King..... Just as any women. Sometimes I feel the Queen is no different than any of us common women. 

This work of art is dedicated to that powerful yet burdened woman who is the Queen too.

Title : The Queen

Medium : Acrylic on Canvas

Size : 31 x 37 inches

Year of execution : 2014

Circle of Life

It all began with this painting.... Circle of Life-1.

Hi to new comers and hi to my old pals. Those of you who know me from my old blog or personally know my obsession with painting on the chess theme. This is my first work in the Chess theme. After experimenting with different themes for a while, I just painted this one and I got hooked on to it. I did a few more in the same series and in the same color scheme. After a while I stopped painting on chess theme and did other works and realised that there was something in this theme and style that I as an artist felt connected to, and I also realised that I love painting on this theme more than anything else. And as an artist I realised that there may be a lot of critics, well wishers and loved ones who might not like it or understand your art, but you have got to do what you want to do.

So this work was done in 2014. Life is so unpredictable yet in a way it is predictable. We all know in our hearts that what goes around comes around. it is all part of the life circle. Life is but a circle. If there are downs all the way one should know in their hearts that there will be good days too. Like wise if there are just good days one should be prepared for bad days too. that is how life is. And that is the theme of this painting.

Title: Circle of Life -1

Medium : Acrylic on Canvas

Size : 33 x 37 inches

Year of execution : 2014