100 days project on Instagram – 100 ways of wreaths

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100daysproject, 100wreaths, Floral, instagram, sketchbook, wreaths

I have started a 100 days project over at my Instagram account Sreetama_ray ( you can see it on my side bar too! )

I have rather impractically decided to do a 100 wreaths – that’s one a day! You can also search for #100waysofwreaths 

If you want to see how it’s going, say hi to me on insta! 

I have only done 2 so far, and possibly a third tonight on day 3. Let’s see how this goes 🙂 

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A Singapore Summer

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#illustration, #singapore, art, singaporeartist, sketchbook, springsummer, tropicalpalms, watercolor

“I stepped from plank to plank

so slow and cautiously;

the stars about my head I felt,

about my feet the sea.”

— Emily Dickinson

 

Illustrated Flowers

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#illustration, exoticgarden, Floral, flowers, ink, micador, purpleflowers, singaporeartist, sketchbook, spring

My mum-in-law came to visit us and gave me a small set of six  aqua painter pens by Micador. The description says they have the texture and opacity of acrylic ink (true) and can be diluted to get transparency like watercolor (not true). Anyhoo, I’ve been experimenting with them on my little Japanese moleskine and they’re quite wonderful. I just doodled these flowers freehand and then went over some bits with the black hightech-point V7. I love how bright and crazy they turned out, like some exotic greenhouse which exists only in my imagination.

 

 

Watercolor Leaves

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#illustration, #tropical, foliage, leaves, palmleaves, singaporeartist, sketchbook, summer, watercolor

Yes, it’s as boring as it sounds.

Literally, a few leaves. My body is so tired I cannot think straight, let alone paint. All the weekends are flying by, the work week is hectic, every other week family is coming over from India to stay with us (not that I don’t enjoy this) and I have started taking some fitness classes. So this kind of uninspiring practice type work, sans stories, is all I have for now.

Black ink flower

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#illustration, bengalisinsingapore, black ink, floralillustration, pentelbrushpen, sheuliphool, singaporeartist, sketchbook, sreetamaray

  
So, a little blob of ink turned into a flower when I wasn’t paying attention. I haven’t had too much time on my hands and I was feeling so guilty for not practicing; then this happened 🙂 It turned out a lot like one of my favorite flowers, which only grow in my beloved home town. Sheuli flowers, which fall from the tall gangly trees and carpet the grass beneath in a layer of in pristine white, dotted with a tiny orange center. Everything about these flowers is pleasant. The way they look – so small but so perfectly formed; the way they smell – like a fresh dewy morning; the time of year when they bloom – the start of autumn when early mornings are marked by soft light and a little nip in the air. 

Coffee and Evenings

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#illustration, #tea, adda, bengali, coffee, india, pentelbrushpen, singaporeartist, sketchbook, watercolor

My friend P and I often drink our evening coffee together. Several days a week, when she makes coffee, she texts me asking if I want one. I do the same too. It’s kind of like an end of work day catch-up. We get the irritants out of our system, share the small, insignificant victories of our day and then go back to being wives and mothers. A quick little breather, for which I am ever so thankful.

Years ago, this used to be a part of Bengali culture. People met for an evening “adda” (chit-chat) over tea somewhere down the street or up on the roof. Over time, as we became more “modern”, this bit of daily routine was lost. I’ve never lamented it’s loss, because I have never known why it was important or why older people valued this time of the day so much.

Now I know. And I wish more people would go back to what was essentially a psychological exercise in letting go of the day’s worries. Some of the things of our past were actually way ahead of its times 🙂

 

 

Magical Cat

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#illustration, catillustration, catlady, magicalcat, rescuecat, singaporeartist, sketchblog, sketchbook, watercolor, writing

 

Some people think that adopting little babies or furbabies is a favor to them. Because they need to be saved. Because it’s charity that will earn people brownie points with Sky Daddy. Like my friend, Ananya, who adopted a “rescue kitty”.

“I just wanted to do something charitable, you know? I really needed to feel good about myself”, she said.

She was going through a divorce, had been made redundant at her job and had just lost a chunk of her social circle due to this change of circumstance. She was feeling worthless and hadn’t laughed at anything for a very long time. In her heart, she believed she never would. She had even considered ending her life.

On kitty’s first night, she followed Ananya into the bathroom and stared at her while she sat down to pee. Then kitty tried to get into the panties around Ananya’s ankles and got horribly tangled and distressed. Ananya heard someone laughing — and a few seconds later found herself shaking, her belly jiggling softly, her head thrown back. She was feeling happy. Not amused or silly. But red-faced belly-shaking happy. Kitty wanted to be with her, even when she was peeing. Kitty needed her to free him from a panty tangle. Kitty was upset if she went out and seemed like he had missed her every moment she was gone.

She named kitty Magic. Her magical furry friend who made her feel needed and loved and followed her around like she was the most important person in the world. A magical “rescue cat”, who saved her life.

 

 

 

Flowers in the Mud

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#sketches #sketchbook #illustrations #expatliving, Floral, poetry, sketchblog, sketchbook, watercolor, watercolorflowers

Watercolor nude self portrait

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#nude, kuretake, pentel, pentelbrushpen, selfportrait, sketchbook, watercolor, watercolour

I have recently acquired a pentel brush pen and a couple of Kuretake watercolor brush pens. So I did a quick nude self portrait :))

I am much too excited about these pentel pens to even act cool. #nerdalert

Amrapali Navaratna Earrings (aka, a massive hint)

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#illustration, #singapore, amrapali, art, design, earrings, india, jewellery, jewelry, navratna, pearls, rubies, singaporeartist, sketchbook, watercolor

 

I have been a huge fan of Amrapali jewelry since 2006, when I first saw a silver lotus ring, with pink tourmaline buds growing out of a vine, at the gift shop of a hotel in Udaipur. It was love at first sight ( I have a huge thing for jewelry. Especially traditional Indian jewelry) and I have been in love with their art ever since.

While browsing their online shop ( I do this often), I found the most exquisite gold navaratna earrings with a pearl drop. Navaratna means “nine gems”. In India, these nine jewels represent the solar system. A ruby for the sun, pearl for the moon, red coral for Mars, emerald for the planet Mercury, yellow sapphire for Jupiter, a diamond for Venus, blue sapphire for Saturn, hessonite for the ascending moon and a cat’s eye for the descending moon. The ruby is at the center with the others surrounding it in a particular order. This is supposed to bring luck to the wearer. Traditionally, I suppose only royalty could afford it and maybe they needed a lot of luck, what with all the wars and stuff.

I need luck too, obvi. But also I need it because it’s so so pretty! The only trouble is, it’s frightfully expensive. So I figured having a drawing of it, tracing its curves and lines, will be kind of like having it 🙂

Shubho Bijoya

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#durgapuja, #illustration, #singapore, bengalibabu, bengalicouple, bengalis, durgapuja2015, goddessshakti, hindufestival, shubhobijoya, sketchbook

In October, Bengalis celebrate Durga, the goddess of Shakti, in a five day long festival. We worship her as our mother and as our daughter. She is our daughter, married, with four children, living in marital bliss with her husband, Shiva. Once a year, she leaves her marital home to come stay with her parents, that is us. This homecoming is what millions of Bengalis look forward to all year. We light up the streets and clean our homes, buy new clothes and prepare to welcome her.

On the fifth day, which is today this year, we say goodbye to her with tears in our eyes. We offer her all her favorite foods and give her new clothes and jewelry. We ask her to come again next year, because without her our home feels empty and joyless. After she leaves, we hug each other, give gifts to the little ones and touch the feet of our elders and ask for their blessing to commemorate Durga’s stay with us.

We wish everyone a “shubho bijoya”, so that the year ahead is full of light and all that is good. It is said that the Gods made Durga, the destroyer of all evil, after harnessing the strength and love of all the mothers in the world. On this day, we wish everyone the strength to have a kind heart in a cruel world, to stand up against all evil and always remember what’s important – family.

Shubho Bijoya and a very happy Dussehra to everyone!

PS: The illustration is of a Bengali couple in our traditional style of saree and dhoti-kurta.

Freida needs a Break

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#illustration, blackandwhite, flowercrown, freida, goldpaint, sketchbook

Sometimes I think if Freida Kahlo was alive, she would be quite tired of the constant co-opting of her life and art. Like Che Guevara, who now finds himself a tool for selling the very things he stood against. So here she is, looking like she really, really needs a break. Still striking though.

Hair Nude 4

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#beauty, #hair, #nude, #singaporeexpat, balckandwhite, bigisbeautiful, fashionillustration, femalenude, inktober, sketchbook

Clingy Couple

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#bff, #illustration, #kissingcouple, #love, #marriage, #valentine, blackandwhite, penandink, sketchbook

Contrary to all the relationship advice, my husband and I continue to be super clingy. We do everything together and feel no need for separate lives. Which is not to say that we are uber affectionate in public or anything. And it seems to me that if we grow old together we will be a lot like this.

Family Jewels

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#goldfoil, #indianjewelry, #mixedmediaart, #mixedmediaproject, #writing, art, asian, beads, bengali, india, marriage, sketchbook, southasia, virginity, watercolor, women

Mixed media project- 1:Watercolor, beads, sharpies and gold foil on paper.

“I am keeping these aside for your wedding”, Ma said, as she looked down at all her gold jewelry. Some of these were from her own wedding and had never been worn since. I was in high school at the time, but I remember thinking of the day when I would be rewarded with these jewels for finding a queer, composite creature who is successful yet humble, rich yet down-to-earth, modern yet traditionally Bengali. A man who our entire extended family and social circle would approve and who in turn, would recognize my true value – augmented by my mother’s gold, of course.

Despite all the gold, I worried about the off chance that I might fail to be fetching enough to achieve this. And why wouldn’t I worry? Some of my older girl cousins who were doing “too well” academically, caused our families to panic about how this might pose a challenge in “getting them married”. One of my cousins grew too tall and big, and every family dinner was open call to discuss how difficult it might be to find a suitably large man for her.

Marriage was inevitable and aspirational at the same time.  My cousins and I, we all knew and were even vaguely excited by what would start a few years later — a test of our true worth. A hunt for the perfect groom. An army of uncles and aunts would go forth, armed with a horoscope, a postcard-sized glamor shot and the one other thing more precious than all the family jewels – our virginity.

P.S. I want to hear your stories, experiences or thoughts about growing up female in Asia – a crowd sourcing of ideas, if you will. You can leave it in the comments section or email me if you want to keep it private. Without your stories, I don’t think I will be able to finish what I have started!