SAT 9 DEC
A final tuning-up of colour, especially the border, and re-drawing India - again - including a pulsating sliver of blue on the left-edge.
I'm enjoying the colour, the composition and content and the irregular, imperfect edges and tactile surface, reminiscent of a rug or tapestry. The shapes and ground are pure but not static: the paint, brushwork and colours within are moving, shifting, agitating against their containing boundaries. I considered and rejected a decorative border - let the colour sing...
A welcome and very different addition to the '20 Books = 20 Paintings' series, now back up to 20 paintings and ready for showing in its new form.
A diamond or two triangles? In Hindu symbolism, the upward pointing triangle symbolises the masculine and fire, the downward pointing triangle a symbol of the feminine and water.
Shiva's ring of fire and Gaitonde's bunker
The blue of the ocean - Mumbai almost an island - the warrior-blue of the Sikhs, policeman Sartaj Singh, the blue of the Dalits (Untouchables). Muslim green, the white of the Brahmins and Gaitonde's cube, the orange/saffron of Hindus and Sikhs. I'm going keep the twin titles: 'Silence without Birds' is a quote from the novel about the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. 'Dead Dog' refers to the dramatic opening of the novel, where a white Pomeranian dog is thrown out of fifth-floor window, and also, perhaps, to Gaitonde's death in the eyes of his enemies.
(5)
WED 6 DEC
I think we're done (5). The ring of fire has a glowing presence with new orange/red. The curves on the right are now purer, sharper. A couple of touches to the building: grey in the corner to ground it, an extra white horizontal and a small white line in the top-right making it less static and just dragging the eye across. More orange around the border lifts the colour further, setting off the blues. T
(4)
MON 4 DEC
India redrawn by carving through the paint on the left, now linking to the shadow of the doorway, and a new green on the right (4). A teal dot of Mumbai, touches of pink on the white-cube. Something else needs to go in the border - something decorative? Perhaps a pattern of circle, triangle, square...
(3)
SUN 3 DEC
Putting the 'white-cube' inside a yantra didn't work, the image became over-complicated. With new refinements and straighter edges, the building now has more presence (3). Love the simplicity of the circle - do I need to make it a circle of fire? The wobbly outside edge suggests fire, like looking at the sun. I worked into the diamond, but a bit of the life has been lost in redrawing India. Back to the studio...
(2)
SUN 2 DEC
A good session (2). Denser, richer blues and refinements of the colour and precision of the border. The two saffron curves on the right now are now free and dynamic. I'm going to try Gaitonde's white cube inside a 'yantra', which are packed with geometry: the circle, triangle and square. The scale and composition of the three elements feels right.
(1)
MON 27 NOV 23
Throwing in the kitchen sink (1): Gaitonde's 'white cube', Shiva's ring of fire, a hybrid image of the caste-pyramid and the shape of india. Hindu saffron, Muslim Green, Dalit blue and the blue of the Indian Ocean, with a nod to the decorative borders in traditional Indian painting...