Marathon Bloggers Prompt Post 1 – Colors -Fractal Art.

I am in creative mood.

Many years ago, in moods like these, I normally would take the paints and color the walls of my room. There were many such patches on the wall with blotches of paints here and there. Some near my bedside, some on the table, some behind the doors and some even in the stairways. But that was long time ago.

I can’t possibly do that now. Can I?

But still I do get creative sometimes, and since most of my time is spend on digital activities, photoshop comes closest to honing my creative spirit.

Working on few layers, with blotches of colors here and there, playing with vector design, I was able to create this fractal art.

This gave me an idea to work on an eye.

Quite happy with this frame, I decide to work on this eye on many layers.

In every layer, I played with transformation, changing the width, length and angle of the design. Added filters to some layers  and a circular 3-D effect

Voila! Finally made a visual digital fractal painting that looked like this.

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.

I don’t play Holi anymore.

Not that I don’t like this festival, (Actually I do) but the mess that follows later (cleaning the house and the bathrooms) is unnecessary waste of time. Early morning I heard the laughter of kids who were playing with color in the building compound. There were sounds of children running, shouting, and giggling. After saying a short morning prayers, I went to my bedroom balcony to watch the children play. Happily they sprinkled colors on faces of their friends, red, blue, green and the festival had arrived with vibrant hues and the celebration of life was here again. Hoil, the festival of colors, mischief, pranks, a day when you get away with any practical jokes and yet dance to a loud music. Holi is a festival of universal brotherhood and happiness. The bonfires that are lit on the eve of Holi are in reminder of the value of true faith in God. Many years ago, we would lit the fire in the lane and all the neighbors would come with coconut, sweets and water, and we would walk three times around the bonfire, break the coconut, sprinkle water and red color powder and then we would play games like antakshri or dumbsheras till late nights. This year I went with my sister to the corner of the street and watched while my sister went closer to the fire to pray. Didn’t want to risk walking around the bonfires, was afraid that I might slip on the wet ground and harm myself. Many years ago, we looked forward to these festivals and took part in all the festivities. We were young then, our vocal chord had higher decibels. We knew all the bollywood numbers and a great stamina to keep awake all night with friends and sing and laugh. Now, Holi is a day to celebrate with family, enjoying lunch, chat and play a game of cards with family and friends. I like to watch children play Hoil, like to watch youngster dance to the loud music and do rain dance, I enjoy this festival, but now I watch it from a distance. Not that I have become old, it is just that now my priorities have changed.