Artist of the week

RAJA RAVI VERMA

Born: April 29, 1848

Died: October 2, 1906

Achievements: Raja Ravi Varma was one of the greatest painters in the history of Indian Arts. He brought Indian painting to the attention of the larger world; provided a vital link between the traditional Indian art and the contemporary art.

Raja Ravi Varma is considered as one of the greatest painters in the history of Indian Arts. He is famous for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Raja Ravi Varma is most remembered for his paintings of beautiful sari clad women, who were portrayed as very shapely and graceful. He is considered as modern among traditionalists and a rationalist among moderns.

Raja Ravi Varma was born on April 29, 1848 in the royal palace of Kilimanoor, 25 miles from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India. His parents were Umamba Thampuratti and Neelakandan Bhattathiripad. At the age of seven years he started drawing on the palace walls using charcoal. His uncle Raja Raja Varma noticed the talent of Ravi Verma and gave him preliminary lessons in painting. At the age of 14, Ayilyam Thirunal Maharaja took him to Travancore Palace and he was taught water painting by the palace painter Rama Swamy Naidu. He was later given lessons in oil painting by a British painter, Theodor Jenson.

In 1873, Ravi Varma won the first prize at the Madras Painting Exhibition. He achieved worldwide acclaim after he won an award for an exhibition of his paintings at Vienna in 1873. He traveled throughout India in search of subjects. He often modeled Hindu Goddesses on South Indian women, whom he considered beautiful. He stayed in the city of Bombay in Maharashtra for some years and drew many a beautiful Maharashtrian woman.

Ravi Varma is particularly noted for his paintings depicting episodes from the story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and Nala and Damayanti, from the Mahabharata. Raja Ravi Varma was fascinated by the power and forceful expression of European paintings, which came across to him as strikingly contrasting to stylized Indian artwork. His paintings are considered to be among the best examples of the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art..

Some of the famous paintings of Raja Ravi Varma are:
Lady Lost in Thought
Damayanti Talking to a Swan
The Orchestra
Arjuna and Subhadra
Lady with Fruit
The Heartbroken
Swarbat Player
Shakuntala
Lord Krishna as Ambassador
Jatayu, a bird devotee of Lord Rama is mauled by Rawana
Victory of Meghanada
A Family of Beggars
A Lady Playing Swarbat
Lady Giving Alms at the Temple
Lord Rama Conquers Varuna
Romancing Couple
Draupadi Dreading to Meet Kichaka
Shantanu and Matsyagandha
Shakuntala Composing a Love Letter to King Dushyanta
Girl in Sage Kanwa's Hermitage

Raja Ravi Varma died on October 2, 1906.

WORD POWER

Methane - odourless, flammable gas. methane is found in Jupiter's atmosphere.

Nebula - interstellar cloud of gases, dust Astronomers say the crab nebula was left by ab exploding star, or supernova.

Magnitude - degree, amount of, as in the brightness of celestial bodies. ancient astronomers dubbed the 20 brightest stars ones f the first magnitude

I LIKE THIS SONG FOR TODAY

Title: Hotel California lyrics
Artist: Eagles

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell And I was thinking to myself,’
this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wine
’He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel California
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

Word Power

Interstellar - Between or among stars. The idea of interstellar space travel is on that appeals to more than a few folks stuck here on earth.

Zenith - Point located directly above an observer. Mars will soon reach its Zenith in the dark night sky of winter.

Corona - ring of light. He saw the sun's corona during an eclipse.

Artist's

CLAUDE MONET

Claude 'Big Ponds' Monet was born in Paris but spent most of his boyhood (and pocket money) in the port of Le Havre where he sold cartoons to classmates, was described as a rascal by teachers, and met French painter, Gene 'Ozone' Boudin, who convinced the budding young artist the best way to further his career would be to paint al fresco (a smart move, al being the biggest gallery owner in town.)
After doing two years' National Service in Algeria and being completely knocked out by the spectacular light plus an equally spectacular bout of typhoid, Claude returned to France where he trained at the Suisse Art School. He then began work at the studio of Gleyre who offered discount rates to skint young daubers like Claude and his contemporaries, Renoir, Bazille, Sisley and Pissarro, charging just 10 francs for the use of studio and models (and for five more, you got to take them home for the weekend). Claude also spent many happy hours painting out of doors at Argenteuil and in the Forest of Fontainebleau, an experience that has given rise to some confusion over what are believed to be his 'almost magical' flicks of white light but are, in essence, large dollops of wood pigeon excrement.
In the late C19 Claude became a serial haystack painter and was only cured of this affliction when he fell victim to the even more powerful mass neurosis known as 'compulsive gardening disorder' (celebrated in his lost masterpiece, 'Bonjour Monsieur Titchmarsh'), finally using the fruits of long-awaited success to externalise this new obsession and buy his stonking great spread at Giverny*, now so beloved of modern day Monet-maniacs who visit the place by the trug load to venerate the master (and steal dahlia cuttings). * Graceland for artaholics

SEE HIS PAINTINGS ONhttp://www.accents-n-art.com/artists/claude_monet/the-cloud.html

Song of the day

by DON MCLEAN

It's just the sun that's shinin'in your eyes.
It's just the moon that is the sun's disguise.
Just the sky, with clouds a blowin' by.
The sun and the moon and the sky, and you and I.

It's just the rain that's rollin'down my cheek.

It's just the wind that makes me hear you speak.

It's just the song that anyone can sing.

The rain and the wind and the song and the love you bring.

It's just the world that gonna break your heart.

It's just the past that's tearin' us apart.

It's just the time we have so little of.

The world and the past and the time that we fell in love.

It's just the sun that's shinin'in your eyes

It's just the moon that is the sun's disguise

It's just the sky, with clouds a blowin' by

The sun and the moon and the sky, and you and I.