the magic paintbox: Painting when it rains!

I love painting when it rains ! I love smelling the water on dry earth, watching the gray clouds scudding across the sky, the rain lashing down, it just makes me want to paint and paint and paint! I make myself a nice cup of chai, take myself up to my studio and start sketching out ideas. The monsoon is a something that we all eagerly wait for.. its the end of a brutally hot summer, the gardens bloom, all the plants are green and all the dust and grime that coats every surface here gets washed clean.
I have been working on a new set of my abstract landscape paintings. I paint these on paper or canvas sheets in Acrylic mainly as it dries quickly during the rainy season. I usually add mixed media elements to the finished acrylic painting and then rework it..over and over until the image matches up with the one in my head.. of course happy accidents do happen but I know where I am going with each piece 90% of the time.
These paintings depict two subject matters - "Angel song" and "Freedom".
Everywhere you go in India, you are surrounded by religion and faith of different kinds. These are some times tangible, sometimes audible, sometimes visual.. usually a combination of the three. " Angel song" is my interpretation of all the calls to prayer, vedic chants and choirs I hear around me. India is an incredible mix of cultures, faiths and religions.. at the end of the day I think it really boils down to spirituality and faith.. no matter what religion you believe in, what traditions you follow, the voice of one of true and pure faith rings out like divine music and can always be heard soaring above the rest. Thats what I have tried to paint... that beautiful song.. the songs of angels.

"Angel song" 24 inches/18
Rs. 10,000

"Angel song 2" 21.4 inches/30
Rs. 10,000

Freedom means different things to everyone.

All over Hyderabad you see pigeons, I believe the numbers have decreased hugely over the years. You see them flying in the sky, sitting on rooftops, windows, telephone poles and wires, on pavements, cars and every conceivable surface! Some of these are free, wild birds and the rest are tame. The funny thing about these tame birds is that they are kept in pigeon coops on rooftops of their owners houses and released every morning. They fly around the neighborhood, all day invariably returning home to their coops by dusk. I often draw parallels between our human lives and the birds!

The paintings in this series are abstract landscapes with the domes and minarets of a city below and soaring birds above.