LAKME - DELIBES - OPERA IMAGINAIRE

Opera Imaginaire (1993) is an assembly of animated short films based on twelve of opera's most popular arias, including excerpts from "The Magic Flute," "Tosca," "Madame Butterfly," "Pagliacci" and more.

Flower duet, directed by Pascal Roulin, music from LAKME by Léo Delibes (1836-1891).

Under a dome of white jasmine
With the roses entwined together
On a river bank covered with flowers laughing in the morning

Gently floating on it's charming risings
On the river's current
On the shining waves
One hand reaches
Reaches for the bank
Where the spring sleeps and
The birds, the birds sing.

Under a dome of white jasmine
Ah! calling us
Together!

Under a dome of white jasmine
With the roses entwined together
On a river bank covered with flowers laughing in the morning
Let us descend together
Gently floating on it's charming risings,
On the river's current
On the shining waves,
One hand reaches,
Reaches for the bank,
Where the spring sleeps,
And the birds, the birds sing.

Under a dome of white jasmine
Ah! calling us
Together!

Fabulous!

Tinga Tinga

Tinga Tinga is African primitive flat work. These days there are various Tinga Tinga schools of painting - from intricate and detailed animals intertwined with the feathers of peacocks, to tourist-oriented work with simple stylized characters at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Both are nice and have their unique appeals.




These fantastic works from a site http://www.tingatinga.org/  Look there more!

Amrita Sher-Gil

She died at an age people start discovering what they’re all about. 1913-1941.She was an eminent Indian painter, sometimes known as India's Frida Kahlo.

Gond paintings

The aboriginal tribal paintings of India - The Gond paintings is a freehand expression of the gond tribes of Mandala in Madhya Pradesh (a central Indian state). Painted freehand these two dimensional paintings reflect their perception of life. The third dimension, the depth is always lacking in these paintings reflecting the simplicity of the artist.The origin and starting time of this unique art is unknown but it is quite common to see it on every housewall of the Gondi village.They paint deities, pictures of nature or simply an event of a day to day.Similar to Australian aboriginal paintings.Colorful and descriptive this art has its own charm.

Mithila paintings

Traditional paintings on paper from Madhubani, Mithila in India. Originally they were painted on the ground and mud walls of the houses as an invocation to the gods who inhabited the images if they were well painted. The three chief gods of Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are frequently depicted as well as Krishna and the female deities Parvati, Kali and Lakshmi.

Padmini

In this painting according to Keshav Das women are classified into four types: the Lotus (Padmini),the Variegate, the Conch-like and Elephant-like Padmini is a beautiful Nayika, emitting the fragrance of the lotus from her body, modest affectionate and generous, slim, free from anger, and with no great fondness for love-sports. Bashful, intelligent, cheerful, clean and soft-skinned, she loves clean and beautiful clothes. She has a golden complexion.

“Shedding flowers from her smile, she is sensitive to tender emotions and knows well the art of love. She is to be preferred to all pannagis, Nagis, Asuris and Suris. All the affection which the people of Vraja bestow on her is in fact too meager. Thousands of fond desires hover round her like bees. Such indeed is Radha, that unique divine champaks bud fashioned by the Creator.”

Lee Gil Woo

Lee Gil-Woo was born in Korea in 1967. Lee Gil-Woo specializes in delicate arrangement of picture so as to create eye-catching effect. By using traditional printing skill, the artist spots out layers of human figures; in addition, the natural texture of silk and layers of Korean paper become a notable feature of Lee Gil-Woo’s creation. As a result, Lee develops a new visual performance of spotted and strong-colored portrait painting. Lee ’s paintings utilise iconic images from Western Pop culture and Eastern classical art, overlaying them and adding a physical layer of intricate incense burn marks. Thus, depending on the way the viewer connects with the work either a Western icon or Eastern art or intricate burn marks are seen.

Murals of Kerala

Kerala, popularly called the God’s own country, has a rich tradition of ancient murals.Just as the paintings of Ajanta are considered unique for their colour and form, the murals of Kerala stand out for their emphasis on beauty, clarity and symmetry. These predominantly depict religious and mystic themes.
The colour symbolism generally follows the permutations of the psychological qualities of embodied in the quasi-scientific philosophical systems of the gunas the triple division of all reality with satva or balanced, pure, divine; rajas or active, dynamic, irascible; and tamas or inert, impure, base. The colour symbolism of the triad is traditionally green for satvic, red and a mixture of red and yellows for the rajasic and black (Shivite) and White (Vaishanavite) for the tamasic deities. Saffron-red is the most predominant colour of the Kerala murals.

Blue City

Jodhpur — known as the Blue City for the color of its buildings — is the second largest city in Rajasthan, the largest state of the Republic of India, standing at the edge of the large Thar Desert, which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan.

Most of the buildings in the old quarter are painted blue to signify the Bhraman (Priest) class, but non-Brahmins soon followed suit, as the color was said to deflect the heat and deter mosquitoes, and suddenly everything turned blue, creating a broad vision of indigo from the hilltops.






Photo Tom Maisey

Samir Sarcar

Samir Sarcar - it's a modern beginning indian artist. More is not known about it - only its works. But it is enough to become interested...

Kalamkari

The word Kalamkari originates from kalam (pen) and kari (work). The best-known practitioners of the ancient art (known to have a history of 3,000 years) are from the temple town of Sri Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. 

In the early years, this work was done on cotton fabric depicting stories from Hindu epics, because the town's temple was the chief patron of the art. 

The art has seen several contemporary variations over the years and is today a much-sought after textile art. Kalamkari prints can be seen on saris and duppattas and on the walls of hotels and corporate houses. 

The process of making traditional Kalamkari is laborious and completely organic. Done entirely by the human hand, it involves great attention to detail.

Anjolie Ela Menon

Anjolie Ela Menon (born 1940) is one of India's leading contemporary female artists.. Her paintings reveal an extraordinary sensibility, profoundly individual in perception yet diverse in its sympathies, Indian in subject yet dwelling in some undefined nudes, interiors and landscapes each markedly of her own world.

"The connection between the mind, eye and hand guided by emotion and imagination results in the ultimate creation of a work of art."
" I think young women now spend a lot of energy fighting those feminist battles. In a way it is easier to give in and play your various roles simultaneously."

Indian modern painting

Modern Indian contemporary painting is like an interconnected flow of various styles and movements: inspired from the Western academic custom of Raja Ravi Verma, to the indigenous and Asian-inspired art of the Bengal School, from Rabindranath Tagore's imagery, to that of Ramkinker Vaij, reflecting the forms of nature; from the art of Amrita Sher-Gill and F N Souza that was inspired by European Modernism, to that of KCS Panikaer that seeks a deeper link with traditional crafts and philosophy; from the socially responsible art of Somnath Hore, Sudhir Patwardhan and others to M F Husain and K G Subramanyan who differently reveal the universality of folk-tribal-urban gamut. The rare aesthetic blend of all these trends and traditions has given rise to the contemporary Indian modern paintings.

Jogen Chowdhury


Satish Gujral


Ganesh Pyne



J Swaminathan

White for Dhanteras

Diwali is the festival, which means celebration one after another, each day with a new philosophy. Many interesting rituals and traditions have attached themselves to Diwali and one can find a little regional variation in them in different parts of India.

The first day of the festival of diwali begins with Dhan-teras. The day is marked by certain customs and rituals that are peculiar to the festivities of Dhanteras. White holds a great importance in these rituals. On the Dhanteras day the prasadam offered to the deities is in white color, the Dhanteras gifts in shiny white color are preferred and even the prayers are offered to the white idol of the deity. If we probe into the significance of the color, white in Hinduism, the image of Goddess Saraswati strikes in our mind. She is depicted as wearing a white sari, which further signifies the enlightenment of mind. Being a benefactor of knowledge and education, her white attire encourages us to adopt the traits of cleanliness, purity and peace. Enrich your celebrations of Dhanteras with the goodness of white!)

Women in ...eggman

The art of morphing has come a long way since the day of screensavers on our families’ first computers. Undoubtedly you saw Women in Art, the previous animation or video art by Philip Scott Johnson(eggman913).

The discussion sparked by Johnson’s work continues even 10 months later. The videos are posted on countless blogs and web sites. New occasion - it's new video by this artist. It is devoted female beauty. The first video features 90 paintings; the second runs the gambit of 75 women in 80 years of film, from Mary Pickford to Halle Berry. The two videos show us there is something more to beauty than the eye of the beholder. Certainly they shed new light on studies which link attractiveness to symmetry in the face -–but  we can’t escape that Johnson captures in fewer than six minutes.

Women in Art



Women In Film

Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Ruth Chatterton, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson, Hedy Lamarr, Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, Deborah Kerr, Judy Garland, Anne Baxter, Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy Dandridge, Shirley MacLaine, Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Janet Leigh, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Ann Margret, Julie Andrews, Raquel Welch, Tuesday Weld, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve, Jacqueline Bisset, Candice Bergen, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Kathleen Turner, Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Angela Bassett, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Salma Hayek, Sandra Bullock, Julianne Moore, Diane Lane, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry.

Pandal time

Durga puja is pandal time in Calcutta. A pandal is a large, temporaryan enclosure that contains an altar or stage to hold one or more dieities, usually in the forms of statues. Durga puja and Kali puja are two biggest festivals, with the most elaborate statues and celebrations. Each statue as inderstood to show the goddess in a different mood, with variations of clouthing and background. The faces of the goddess statues do not tend to be emotional, however but rather detached and subtly smiled.