tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20285914523458040712011-12-28T15:11:48.158+05:30Trying to get a handle on things through drawings and words. It's good fun. I recommend it.Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-6715950873048070282011-11-24T09:40:00.003+05:302011-12-07T17:03:37.791+05:30

My friends Swathi and Arjun got married earlier this year. I couldn't make it for their wedding, which was so, so disappointing! I was in love with their wedding photos for a good two weeks. (I'd visit the album at least twice a day).  I wanted to gift them something special. I also wanted to break in my new oil pastels. The Couple on Their Big Day I took this picture of the portrait at

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-330865143983929682011-06-16T13:38:00.015+05:302011-12-28T15:09:00.310+05:30

Aaah. It's nice to be home. I've been traveling a LOT these past few months. Not that I'm complaining, but yeah, it's good to be home for now. Cambodia The travel began in January. Cambodia. It was a work trip, and I had absolutely no time to be a tourist. But I didn't mind too much since I have been to Cambodia before and covered Phnom Penh and Siem Reap pretty comprehensively. In fact, my

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-33815180634215546492011-04-29T09:47:00.003+05:302011-08-29T08:33:30.140+05:30

So my manager Cheryl is currently interviewing candidates for a post that has opened on our editorial desk. It's a good role and ours is a reputed company in the industry. There were loads of applicants. But none as incredible as the applicant whom we shall refer to as, 'The Amazing One'. The Amazing One's interview was scheduled at 9am this past Tuesday. Cheryl was patiently waiting till about

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-83002885164827654032011-03-07T13:28:00.004+05:302011-03-08T07:07:03.695+05:30

Hello there! Come, sit. Have some chai. I really enjoyed doing this painting. It's just black on the beautiful off-white paper I'd mentioned in my last post. I diluted the black to various degrees to bring out the highlights on his hat, folds of white his shirt, and the highlights on his trousers. I think of him as My Jazz Man; a saxophone player taking a smoke break. Between sets. Though he

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-46281037144782399752011-02-12T22:15:00.003+05:302011-02-16T14:54:12.764+05:30

I have this leather bound diary with the most exquisite off-white paper. The sheets just beg to be drawn on. And I oblige quite often. Here's some of it. This was a from a picture from a Pink Floyd album booklet. She was one of the back up singers. Aaah.. I call this one, 'The Reason I Shouldn't use Oil Pastels'. The other sketches in the diary took

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-10475357321261574212011-02-12T21:54:00.002+05:302011-02-15T10:26:16.011+05:30

One of my early experiments with poster colours. This took about 1.5 hours. I don't really look like myself here. Or do I? It's hard for me to tell.

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-67649341303873010872011-02-02T08:04:00.006+05:302011-03-11T09:00:06.259+05:30

I really do; a nice steaming cup. With sugar, and maybe some elaichi. It's pouring outside; and the air conditioner vent near my desk clearly hates me. I shall warm up my frozen fingers by typing to you. Considering the date on which I last posted it would be a perfectly valid assumption that I have been very lazy about it. In actual fact though, I have been sketching and painting more than ever

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-55571646455613686562010-10-09T23:12:00.001+05:302010-10-14T07:35:58.832+05:30

 Cecelia D'souza 1st March 1921- 9th October 2010  Rest in peace, Nana.

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-36571985970526839562010-09-28T17:23:00.001+05:302010-09-28T17:29:40.481+05:30

Simplified, my eye! Be that as it may, I'm absolutely loving my Mandarin class. Today was day two of week three. It's challenging, fast paced, fun, and rife with the kind of strange and wonderful happenings that always occur when people of completely different cultures and backgrounds come together. On day one, true to form I reached class early enough to sweep the floor, take a nap and grab a

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-72183416978678990802010-08-30T17:48:00.005+05:302011-02-14T12:37:42.854+05:30

Warning: Long-ish post :) I had a wonderful weekend. Lone photo walk in China Town, clubbing with friends- where I danced like a happy maniac might I add, watching while they played poker (I do NOT have the face for this game), lots of conversation and a little bit of planning next weekend's activities. I loved it. It was all very slice of life in Singapore. It made me remember that I am here

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-27257815528031377722010-08-19T18:35:00.002+05:302010-08-28T18:27:19.573+05:30

While flipping through one of the Asian Geographic magazines lying around Jinny's house, I came across an edition which featured portraits from around the world. It was such a treat! Beautifully composed and captured portraits; some vibrant in black and white, some paused in time in sepia, some alive with colour. Portrait photography though, is a tricky thing. It's not just about capturing an

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-14739833538807844972010-08-11T09:10:00.001+05:302010-08-12T12:14:19.841+05:30

So I received this text message on Friendship Day. It wasn't from a friend. It was one of those forwards from an unknown number. The, ''Hi Dear May this Diwali light up your life like you have lighted (!) mine'' type of texts. Those nuggets of sheer genius which aren't really messages so much as the official address of where the English language went to die. Messages made even more excruciating

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-91842131553419241442010-07-19T15:17:00.001+05:302010-07-21T09:16:08.464+05:30

I have been sketching a lot in Singapore but haven't been able to post any of it on here since I don't have easy access to a scanner anymore. So this image is a photograph (courtesy Jason) of my charcoal sketch.Jason is my old, dear friend from college. And now, Jinny's roommate. Teeny, tiny, beautiful world.  I haven't painted since I've been here. I (very cleverly) only carried my charcoal

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-12473886046650861902010-07-15T11:08:00.005+05:302010-08-23T11:23:43.656+05:30

I was a painfully shy child who barely spoke or smiled outside of the house. It's not that I  was grumpy; I was just utterly non - reactive. This trait inspired one of my then neighbours (after a particularly harrowing 10 minutes spent trying to get me to smile), to coin the nickname Fugga Mary (grumpy Mary); the blessed thing stuck for longer than I care to admit. I was friendly enough with

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-73454424640959327162010-07-14T11:49:00.005+05:302010-10-07T16:43:26.773+05:30

I really am, you know. Yesterday I was on the 26th floor of a building in Singapore, making inquiries about a course in Mandarin, that I am very excited about by the way. After my short consultation with one of the professors there, I left the Language Institute's office and got into the elevator. I pressed the '1' button. The elevator however had a stop to make on the 30th floor. So, up I went

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-21913327229501445782010-06-16T19:56:00.001+05:302010-06-16T20:22:50.395+05:30

Janis Joplin: 19th Jan 1943 to 4th Oct 1970 "Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got"- Janis JoplinThis pencil sketch (2B and 6B graphite + pointy eraser for the highlights in her hair) took me about two hours to do. Since I have only one of her songs on CD (Me and Bobby McGee), I listened to it on loop the entire time.What those two hours have done is left me with is the inability to

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-84677045848805203752010-06-09T21:23:00.001+05:302010-06-10T10:21:48.649+05:30

I just found a bunch of ancient pencil sketches! The dates I've noted on them tell me that I was busy doing these instead of studying for year end exams. It's so interesting for me to look at these sketches now. They are so happily untidy and unpolished. They were for my eyes only, so clearly presentation/ neatness wasn't of much importance.No longer for my eyes only, here you go. My misspent

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-165623451769182372010-05-31T20:07:00.001+05:302010-06-24T11:40:04.769+05:30

I have wanted to write about Chennai for some time now, so much so that my mind refused to write about anything else. Now this was a real problem since I couldn't figure out how to even begin talking about these past 23 months.Should I start with the people I met, or the places I visited? The food, the weather, the auto drivers? The things I learned? Work? Home? To even touch the surface of all

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-15272563563055546272010-05-13T09:51:00.002+05:302010-05-13T10:45:49.257+05:30

There are so many places I've yet to visit! The free time and cash situation refuses to keep up with my ever growing list of must see places.Pretty high on this list, is Venice.Canal near St. Barnaba in Venice, Italy. Medium: WatercolourThis is my watercolour rendition of a photograph I came across in the travel section of the LA Times e-paper while doing some research on Italy as a possible

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-57886730719090628422010-05-06T17:40:00.010+05:302011-07-15T11:54:27.510+05:30

Jinny and I spent 24th to 27th December 2008 in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap learning about Cambodia's tragic history and resilient people, one temple at a time. These temples tell their stories as much through their beautiful carvings as through their many scars. Jinny didn’t have his trusty SLR with him that trip. He pretty much travelled to Cambodia with his wallet, passport and the shirt on his

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-77580641351720606742010-04-29T17:34:00.003+05:302010-05-06T14:38:18.855+05:30

This is the first in a series which I will call, 'Good God, you're bloody fantastic!' Or something like that.For here I shall pay tribute to artists who, through their work, have changed the way in which the world views things. Work that is so brave and path breaking, that it had no choice but to enter our very frame of reference and become part of pop culture. The movies they make, the dialogues

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-66260961904400774962010-04-24T15:48:00.008+05:302010-05-17T14:03:30.630+05:30

On a recent trip to Singapore, I listened to a lo-ot of Bob Marley, courtesy my Singaporean host who was deeply in the throes of Marley-ness. He had this crazy version of ‘Stir It Up’; the arrangement and tempo were so… unique. And just brilliant. When I look for music that’s real and different I overlook the popular acts, just on principle. But this song made me re-evaluate my system. It kind of

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028591452345804071.post-62103785846640269582010-04-23T14:14:00.003+05:302010-04-23T14:33:04.352+05:30

I am so kicked I finally created a blog for myself! So kicked infact, that I barely care I'm celebrating this sort of thing about eight years after it stopped being fashionable to do so. Woohoo!

Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16231959595364001307noreply@blogger.com1