Day 9 of 10 - KAPIL DEV(IL)...

Kapil Dev - 1987
Poster colors on Paper (8" x 10")     

Kapil Dev Nihankj - one of India's finest Cricketers of all-time, led the Indian Team to win its first World Cup in 1983. A passionate, stylish, and talented Cricket player, he always played with the spirit of winning for the Country. He was my favorite Cricketer since my 5th class until he retired in 1994.

Got introduced in School...

I have had many memories of Cricket game from the days of listening radio commentary to watching live matches on TV. In our school, one of the cooks in the kitchen was our source for Cricket scores. We used to hang around a window in our recess time while he was cutting vegetables with his transistor radio on inside the kitchen. We got introduced to Cricket in our school at the age of 9 by playing. Our school had nice & big grounds, and all the Cricket equipment. Gavaskar and Kapil Dev were the two super-heroes of the Indian Cricket at that time.

My memories of Kapil Dev...

In my Intermediate in Vijayawada, once I went with my friends to watch "Deodhar Trophy" one-day match between North and South. Kapil Dev was supposed to be playing on that day for North, but due to some reason he couldn't make it. We were bit disappointed. Roger Binny entertained the crowd with his batting and bowling. I missed the only chance I got to watch him play on the Cricket grounds.

On my first overseas trip to London in 1994 on a TCS project, I was super thrilled to spend a day in "Tunbridge Wells" - a small and beautiful town, one hour from London. That was the place where Kapil Dev created a history, played an unforgettable innings with his unbeaten 175 which lifted India’s team spirits and kept India alive in the World Cup. Unfortunately, his batting on that day was not live-telecasted as BBC cameras were on strike.

A great all-time Cricketer, Kapil was named "Indian Cricketer of the Century". I bought the book "World of Kapil Dev" by Kapil and his wife Romi Dev, came out in the market soon after he retired holding the world record of most number of wickets in Test matches surpassing Richard Hadlee. I still have it with me. I also have a "Thums Up Flip Book", when flipped pages one side rapidly shows Kapil's bowling in action. Flipped the other way, shows Kapil drinking "Thumbs Up" drink and showing his  thumbs up at the end.

Back to 1987...

The initial days of my watercolor exploration with Camel Poster colors is clearly visible in this one of my very first paintings done in 2nd year Engineering in Vijayawada. This painting was based on an Ad printed in Sports Weekly. I think the Ad was for a shaving cream and so he is seen with a towel on shoulders. I was so accurate at portraits in pencil and ballpoint-pen by then already. This was the first portrait in Watercolors which gave me some level of self-confidence that I could also paint portraits.

Later, I added India map and his name - KAPIL DEV. My classmate Bhanu Murthy - a hardcore fan of Kapil came up with several captions when he saw this, I chose Kapil Devil and extended the name by adding (IL).

"Kapil Dev" was the first of a sportsmen I did a portrait. I also did fast sketches of Ravi Shastri and Tendulkar.

This painting in my Art portfolio always takes me back to my school and college days of playing Cricket. I was a good medium pace bowler, bowling with good line and length. I did introduce Cricket to both of my Sons, Rithvik and Bhuvan at young age of 8 and 6. I brought a pair of bats, wickets, gloves and balls from India. Weekends, three of us used to go to grounds to play Cricket, Soccer and Baseball. We also used to play on our driveway with tennis balls. Both are good at sports, picked up Cricket in no time. Rithvik is very stylish at batting, Bhuvan is a very fine bowler & batsman.

Cricket is a nice sport, 2nd widely followed and watched sport in the world, after Soccer.

Still, America ignores it ;)

Day 4 of 10 - Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...(cont'd)

Kamal Hassan - 1987
Camel Poster Colors mixed with Acrylic on Paper (12" x 16").   

Continuing my exploration of Painting from yesterday's post...

Portrait of Kamal Hassan done in 1987. A small portion of a light pole leaning against can also be seen. I had this painting pasted on the wall in my Engineering hostel room, and thus it got damaged. So, I had to cut the paper around it losing the date below my signature.

Going back 2 more years, 1987...

As I was progressing, my signature was also undergoing some changes ;) This was one of my very early paintings of that time. The thickness of the paint on paper is clearly visible. One reason for that was, I was happily mixing white fabric color unknowingly with every color, and that was also causing patches. I was that ignorant. I did know that fabric color was for cloth painting, but didn't know that it was not good for mixing with poster color.

Resources - Art material

There were no resources available to get any details about art material and where to buy if available. I spent too much of my time going around almost to every single bookshop in Vijayawada including some on the unknown streets in one-town (the whole-sale business area) with very narrow roads. A bookshop guy in Patamata told me to check one-town area, and that's how I ended up searching for shops even in an area that was full of whole-sale warehouses where in they wouldn't sell anything in small numbers/quantities.

Vijayawada one-town was a big area and was known for it's whole-sale business.It was also very difficult to navigate in and out. Once you enter, you won't be able to come out, back to the place where you entered. One had to walk and would only get lost somewhere deep inside.

After making a couple of trips, all the way from one end of the city to another, by taking infamous Vijayawada city buses, I somehow managed to find a whole-sale business stationery warehouse with a small shutter room at the front which was open. The person I met there at least did not put a puzzling face when I asked for art material like watercolors, paper, palettes and brushes. He went inside and brought a box of Camel Poster Colors and said that's all he had. I already had a few colors that I bought in my hometown Kavali. I bought a few more just because I went all the way over there and that guy at least showed me something. I returned to my hostel very disappointed with my mind clearly set, I was done with my exploration of watercolor painting material. Whatever I got by then, I had to just explore my watercolor painting with.

Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...

Resources - Artists

I tried my best to find an artist or a watercolor painter. The only media available was newspapers. I still remember, one Sunday morning I took bus to the other end of the city after I saw some details about an Art exhibition in a newspaper. I did meet the Artist there who displayed her beautiful European paintings done on china (పింగాణి) plates. They were absolutely beautiful and stunning. She copied many European masters' paintings and painted those on china plates. But, she did not help me in giving any details that I wanted to know about painting in general.

Another instance I met an Artist was, few days before a new year eve, a poor Artist came to our hostel to sell greeting cards he painted. They were all original post-card size paintings done in a unique style. I was very impressed with his works and bought a bunch, about a dozen or so. I think each one costed Rs 5 /-. He felt so happy that at least one bought some of his cards. I showed him some of my paintings and asked him few questions about the material he used and how he did his paintings. He did not reveal any details at all, and said- he was from a poor family, learned some techniques from his father and hence would not tell anyone as he was making a living by selling his cards. He made a point not to share any details about his works. I didn't know at that time Artists' world was bit secret and they wouldn't reveal their techniques. I never came across any other Artist in my college life, other than the same one coming in for a couple of years in a row, and I became his customer.

Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...

Resources - Books

When finding Computer Science text books itself was hard, how could one expect to find Art books? Our college library had a couple of foreign art books and magazines. I did refer to those many times to learn on "how to paint watercolors". The funniest thing was, those all were on oil-painting. ;) But those books planted a seed of desire in me for Oil Painting.

Also, I used to go to buy old books and magazines on the footpaths near Alankar theatre on Sunday evenings. Found a bunch of foreign magazines, but all were on oil-painting. So, I had no luck in finding any books/magazines on watercolor painting.

Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...

To be continued in tomorrow's post when I share how I found my watercolor painting "Guru"...

Day-4 of Painting Challenge on Facebook . . .

Day-4 of Painting Challenge on Facebook

This is one of my early explorations of #watercolor #painting during my college days at #VRSEC, #Vijayawada. This is based on a painting by Thomas Moran, an American Artist, published in SPAN magazine I bought on the footpaths at Alankar theatre, #Vijayawada. I didn't know any techniques, didn't even know the basics of #colortheory. All I had was a limited set of poster colors and a strong desire to learn from #masters printed art works.

Details

Mediums: Camel Poster Colors on Paper

Inspiration: A Painting published in SPAN magazine

Size: 11" x 14" (28 cm x 36 cm)
Signed and Dated: Oct 21, 1987

Day-2 of Painting Challenge on Facebook . . .

Day-2 of painting challenge on Facebook

This is also one of the early milestones of my journey with #watercolors that boosted my confidence. I was so happy with this outcome and was so proud of it for many days at my home in #Kavali where I did this one.

This is based on a photograph from a Calendar of beautiful pictures that I got from my uncle Sudhakar Jaladanki. The original picture was a lake in beautiful #Kashmir in #India.

Details

Mediums: Camel Poster Colors on Paper
Inspiration: A calendar picture of a lake in Kashmir, India

Size: 8" x 10" (20 cm x 25 cm)
Signed and Dated: Aug 4, 1987