Hi Everybody,
I have just put my new site. www.artbyaarohi.com is live!
I have a brand new exhibition coming up and tons of new images and work for you to see.
Please make changes to your bookmarks, etc. as needed.
Thank you for everything!

- Aarohi

(B)art-er

Oh, something to tell you all - I have given away or bartered a lot of work over the years. The latest was to artist Ameen Dhillon in Seattle. I sent over a painted kettle and a Ganapati plate in exchange for these:

The Barber


Tortilleria Wendy



She does some amazing work. Do check out her blog here

It starts here

I am busy preparing for a show of my kitsch art. It’s my prêt line (kitsch) in art with a couture (fine art) showing to follow.
In fact I also made a start in the latter direction. After dilly-dallying forever, I got 5 pen and inks framed and left them with Rightlines Art Gallery in Indiranagar , Bangalore.
I have to say they (Raj and Indira) were brutally honest as to what they thought of my work but were also extremely encouraging.
I am hopeful that my relationship with them will be long and fruitful for both sides.

Feeding the creative in me

Yes, I know it has been tooooo long yet again. I apologize. Let me start afresh.
Meera turned two! I can't believe how time flew..
I have been working on getting back to what I love doing... painting, quilting, stitching, baking, reading books again... just to keep the creative juices flowing and alive.
I am currently in the middle of reading a book by a friend Kanika Gehlaut – Among the Chatterati.
Interesting read!

Work in progress - an update

Hi, I know I have been M.I.A for a loooong while now. But, I have been busy- I kid you not.

...the last six months or so have involved
-two birthdays, my wedding anniversary,
-a long fun filled summer vacation from school for my son,
-a trip to the USA for my husband and I and
-potty training for my little one ( have not completely succeeded yet!!)

But, I did find time to paint.

Krishna with cows:

I absolutely love this painting. In fact, it's quite large, about 3.5 by 5 feet.

More to come... :-)

Kitsch keeps me sane...for now.

I read an article online about painted furniture. That got me interested. I started small with a kettle or two. Then I got truly bitten... I am all set to start painting my drawing room wall.



Oh, I have always loved animal prints... so don't miss the zebra stripes... they're everywhere!



It took me 45 agonizing minutes to do the inside of this kadai in zebra stripes!!




This table was done for my friends Divya and Awanish. It's called the 'Item Bomb' table.



I use this Balti to keep magazines and paper rolls. I am considering taking it around as a carryall bag!!




A more tropical theme to the kettle...




This is my take on a funky Ganesh. In the first plate he holds a bat and ball and in the second, he's riding a scooter.




Krishna..



A lover's pot.

Ahhh! Immediate satisfaction

Chalk pastels are the BEST! its like drawing in colour. I have to thank the late art critic Krishna Chaitanya for insisting that some day I use them. He had given me this advice at my exhibition in 1994 when he saw a few faces that I had done using coloured pencils.

Thank you sir.

This was the very first time that I used chalk pastels. These faces were done in 1999.



This was done in 2005. This photograph was taken after the portrait was framed, that is why it looks a little hazy.

Ink blobs

My start into pen and ink images was purely accidental. I was in Barmer ( yup, yet again Barmer comes up!!) and frustrated with waiting for an oil painting to dry. I started scribbling with sketch pens, added some ink blobs, smudged them around and viola I had a wonderful painting. Sadly I don't have an image of that one. It got sold the day it came back from the framer. I never had a chance to photograph it. Though I think I have one somewhere as a work in progress...need to fish it out.

I love the immediacy of the pen and inks, does not take too much time to do or dry. But it is a whole lot more difficult, as it is probably the least forgiving of all the mediums. As in, one mistake and its gone. Next to impossible to correct.

I start with a preliminary sketch and then start inking.



I think in colour, rarely in black and white and in these next two images, you can see why!



These were two guys standing on the side of a road en route to Jaisalmer, waiting for a bus.



These two were sitting on the steps of a shop selling jewelery.

Acrylics

This was my attempt at trying out a new medium (for me) then- 1997. It was also the first time I tried my hand at some kind of abstraction. It was quite successful, at least commercially.

The following two images are the only ones left with me from that collection of about 12 paintings. The first I liked a lot and the second my husband loves.

Started the traditional way...

I started the traditional way with oils....but it just took too long to dry. The purists would say that to be an artist you have to be able to use oils and use them well. I tried, and I was happy with the results. That is, till I discovered chalk pastels!! ( thats a little later in the blog though.)

This man was one that I saw just wondering through the streets of Barmer. He was off course kind enough to look back just when I needed him to.

By the way, my dad is ex-Indian Air Force and as a result I have had the privilege of traveling through pretty much the length and breath of this wonderful country. But, my stay at Barmer was the best, the colours still stay with me and I guess always will!



This group was having a chat at one of the Dhanis I visited with my mum. I was not too happy with the way the girls face turned out, but the hand of the man in front, more than made up for it. The shadows were what drew me too painting this image in the first place.



I spent a wonderful day with my then boyfriend and now husband ;-) Supreet in Jaisalmer. the two men in this painting were actually preparing some opium drink and they offered it to us. We did decline though!!



These two were standing around at the sunday market in Barmer. The red of the turbans and the slippers in the background did it for me. I just had to paint them. Supreet likes the way the folds of the cloth came out.



This is inspired from an image I found in a book.




These were two women standing at the side of a road I think. The background is artistic license!



So were these two.



This painting was a exploratory sketch that developed into..well this.



I forget the inspiration for this one, but the composition as a whole is what got me to paint it.



These guys were testing the strength of this metal trunk before actually buying it!! Again, was at the market in Barmer.



Musicians are the life blood of Rajasthan and you find them everywhere. How could I not paint them!