mr anderson neo

waiting for her

I really enjoy this painting by my friend , a new painter .
There is a certain purity of expression here - a nuance which one doesnt expect to be caught in an oil painting that he has successfully managed. I can see a certain wistfulness in the chap's face as he holds the rose that has fallen from the beloved's hair and is trying to imagine the wonderful aroma of her hair .... and wondering when they would meet again..
It harks back to the romance of a bygone era - when romance was rich and deep.

how it all began ...

It all began with a question - Am i doing the right thing by them , the boys that is ... Am I being the best Mother i could possibly be?
With the elder one things seemed much more easier and natural ,I guess that is the advantage of the first experience and less knowledge and no access to the internet! With the second one , I had decided I would research everything on the internet , get all the necessary info and then proceed- be it breast feeding, diaper changing, sleep times , when to start the semi-solids and so on. Then there was inevitably the time when i was overloaded with contradicting information and too much of it! That was when I was told by a good friend , my rock ,Roopa , to trust my instincts and to go for it. After all, I wasnt a first time parent was I ? I must have done something right the first time with the 6 year-old !
Which was when I decided to have a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of parent-hood , the choices one has to make everyday, and the sheer bliss of seeing that what you chose with your heart most of the times was the right thing in the end ... And I am humbled and proud at the same time to share those moments, those instants with the world ... I must have done something right to be a part of this beauty- this sheer magnificence of line and form and color transform themselves into thinking, feeling, growing and questioning human-babies-soon-to-be-adults! These are the moments when art, beauty, science, instinct and parenthood all come together in images that are poetic, emotional and really worth-while.
And what better way to keep a chronicle of their growing up than through snapshots of beautiful, langurous days spent knowing these lovely people who are my beautiful children! Amen to that....

Art and how it helps

I always wonder what is it about art - good art - that makes viewing it such a wonderful experience ? What is it about the play of light and shadow, the use of color , the choice of the subject and the actual composition of the whole painting , that makes such an impact on the viewer's eye ? Here it could even be a doodle by my six year old , that i sometimes like looking at- put up on my fridge , that some how seems to calm me down and makes me breathe easier . Maybe its because we associate certain images with certain lasting values, that the very idea that those values exist , be it ever so transient , even in a child's doodle , that makes this madness of everyday existence seem bearable !
The solidness of red in an apple , the deep blue of a sky and the lovely pure yellow of a glowing Sun - these images in a child's painting are reasssuring that the Sun will rise again , another day will begin for another child to look at it and put it down on paper , to make sense to another person trying to make sense of an otherwise chaotic world ....
More musings later ......

living the good life -literally. Some lovely posing going on here .....!