Friends - Gond Painting

Nature is always an inspiration, one just needs a little bit of time and eye to look around and savour it. I feel closely connected to nature around me; nothing much here though when you are living in a concrete jungle. Still whenever we steal a tiny bit of time we try to spend some quality time enjoying what is left of nature, lately. My husband is not much of a travel person, he has however complied to my earnest appeals after a long time :)

Birds and blooms are very close to my heart; by late last year I had painted this picture after the Gond style.

Gond paintings belong to India's largest indigenous tribal community situated in the heart part of India in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Gonds are of Dravidian origin and can be traced back to Pre-Aryan era. The word Gond comes from Kond which means green mountains in the Dravidian idiom. Their art is supposed be an expression of their everyday quest for life. They decorated their houses and floors with traditional tatoos and motifs.The fine lines, dots and dashes of traditional Gond Pradhan motifs were introduced to the world by the late painter J.Swaminathan, who discovered a talented seventeen year old Jangarh Singh Shyam decorating the huts of Patangarh in Madhya Pradesh. Jangarh's meteoric rise to fame was marked by his acclaimed exhibitions in Paris and Tokyo and ended on a tragic note with his suicide.

The legacy of Jangarh is captured in the artistic brilliance and creativity of his family who he had mentored in this traditional art form, and thus came about the resurgence of a whole new generation of Shyam.

This is my interpretation of the style;I haven't exactly followed the Gond style though.

   Friends - Acrylics and pen

 Close up

So what do you think about this? Do leave your views and opinions, would love to read them :) 

ps: Linking it to illustration friday after a very long time... The topic is 'Wings'...I thought birds are synonymous with wings for they being the free spirits...and here though they aren't projecting the wings they do intend to take the sky sooner or later :)

Linking it to Paint Party Friday, Show and Tell Saturday@ Artists in Blogland and Illustration Friday

Ref: http://ignca.nic.in/tribal_art_intro_gonds_mp.htm
             http://www.gondtribalart.com/

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