Enamel Paintings

Last week I had the pleasure of viewing an exhibition of enamel painting. I enjoy such exhibitions and I am sure even the students attending art colleges would have enjoyed this exhibition.

My friend had attended the 15-days workshop of enamel painting and mastered some basic skills of this art. On her return she poured out all her experiences, recalling moments that she shared  with other professional painter.


This got me interested.

It has been long time since I have painted and but listening to her enthusiasm, I was inspired, sat craving for paints and brushes again and may start one painting in oils soon.

The enamel painting is kind of different from other paintings, because it has a different approach. Colored powder is used to make designs on a metal, then fired in a strong furnace for 2 minutes for powder to melt and give it a glossy finish. Friend says there is surprise element at every stage and the painting has to be done in stages, like layer after layer, each time painting a little, introducing it into the furnace for the powder to melt and hoping to get the desired effect.

My friend is a good artist and has made many oils and water colors too, so during the workshop, her artistically done enamel painting was quite good and few of them were exhibited at Tao Art Gallery at Worli.

This one was done by my friend and exhibited at the gallery. with just two colors, black and white, it made quite an impact.

I had liked this one which is kind of abstract concentric circles, superimposed one above another creating a beautiful design, he must have used many layers to get this effect.

I was especially impressed by this girl, who was to be able to wear her own creations. Such a proud moment when people ask her "Did you design this?" and she lowers her eyes, looks once again at her locket and smiles saying "Yes, I did"

I liked this painting for its choice of its bright colors, shading it a bit, surrounding it with black net giving it a butterfly effect.

This one was my favorite and I liked this the best. The center semicircular gold ball was quite impressive with the balance of identical designs on its four sides.

There were many more, some of them in set of three, complimenting each other exhibited side by side. 

Every design had different effect and some of them must have surprised the owner too, because the results are some times very different from what the artist had imagined.


Some of them so beautiful that one can stand back and admire it again and again.