It’s my fortieth birthday and our home will be enjoying my first Tanjore painting.

I never set out for being a milestone week to wrap up the painting, but the alignment of the work completion to this week brings a lot of joy!

I realized that when I’m part of a group, I’m seeking community amongst creatives. Much has to be spoken about the Tanjore collective WhatsApp group, it’s a safe space for all artist learning about Tanjore painting together. Some of us are in the same timeline as the classes but the rest of us are in a very different phase and all is welcome.

I have learnt to appreciate the classical arts, especially classical visual art more owing to learning the layers and multitude of steps involved to make it come to life!

So without further delay, a tiny video preview below of Lord Venkateshwara, my first Tanjore painting.

It gets tricky trying to photograph so much gold, but see some I took using my phone in the studio desk this morning!

The finishing details take the longest time, it’s the fine pointing of edges, sticking tiny jewels, waiting for paint to fry before second coat background effects, ordering glass pints to fill in the gems, etc! Lots to go but I think this is final lap!

Thank you for reading along! Let me know what you think of the painting, the previous posts have more on the initial journey.

Now am off to some rest and recovery before my adventurous forties begin!

Cheers

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