Practice makes pearfect.

 I have spent the last few days painting a pear. It is an American
pear, although I'm not sure it is a Seckel, as they are supposed
to be quite small. A few visitors asked me if it was a deformed
apple (the actual pear, not my attempts to draw it).

It was a fun exercise, because I first tried watercolour, then
a black-and-white pencil sketch, and finally the watercolour pencil
one you see here. I had intended attempting a fourth - in oil pastels -
but hunger got the better of me.

I'm not sure if it's because I left the pear out for so many days,
or if this is just the way it's supposed to taste and feel. The first bite
was juicy, but the overall experience is one of powdery mush.
I've eaten as much as I could bear, and stopped. Perhaps it was
the anticipation, the you-can't-have-it-till-you've-painted-it.
Or perhaps it turned into a senior citizen while I took my time
over the paintings. But it was definitely more fun to paint than to eat.

Next time I shall pick something I don't want to eat. Watch
this space for eggplant. Or click here for better pictures
than mine:  The Art of Botanical Illustration: An Illustrated History

Just because.

Just because it's a cheap little Government of India yellow post card,
doesn't mean it has to be boring. Or rural. Or official.


(If you want to know more about the lady who said this, click this link: The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life or maybe you'd prefer wiki

This postcard, mailed to my niece, is the first of many that I hope
to doodle and send out across the country. If you're in India
and would like to get a card too, email me your postal address,
and perhaps one day you'll find something like this in your postbox.

The things you find.

Lately I have been trying my hand at watercolour painting.
Mostly on my bedroom wall, using watercolour pencils
that I picked up in the kids' section of a stationery shop.
This evening I remembered I had a pad of watercolour paper
lying around somewhere. I dug it out, and discovered that I have
already tried my hand at watercolour painting. I'd quite forgotten.
I think it was some time in the early nineties, because this one
must have been done after one of those Indian Fine Arts Society shows.

For those of you unfamiliar with Hindustani classical music, the tanpura
is a stringed instrument that "drones" in the background and provides
a steady beat for the lead musicians.