June 19, 2010

bird of paradise


batik and sequins - on cotton
48 x 69cm

Where I grew up in the Sivalik hills (Dehradun, India); the house was built on terraced land overlooking a river, and hills.  We have quite a big garden, mango and litchi trees amongst a variety of flowering trees, a patch of land dedicated to a Eucalyptus 'forest' and tall lucious bamboos growing wild in the dark slopes where the monsoon rainwater runs off towards the river.

Even though over the years, the neighbouring fields have been sold and converted into residential plots with more and more houses, more people, more noise; our little pocket still retains its 'green-ness'.  One of the beautiful memories I have of this house is the amount and variety of birds which stopped, nested, or just visited.  During spring, on rare occasions we would see Birds of Paradise.

This is my ode to them and to the magic of my childhood.
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On a more technical note : I am experimenting with adding embroidery onto the batiks.  First of all : I need to learn a LOT about embroidery (was always more of a tomboy); and second : I'm not certain the sequins were the right choice, even though I like the rainbow shine of them.  I figure I need to leave this for a while, then take a fresh look to see if I want to do it again, differently.

4 comments:

  1. merci pour les oiseaux shasha :-) and i like your green leaves so fresh compared to the bird that is kind of disapearing away :-(
    à quand l'expo :-)))))))

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  2. merci Sophie.. :)
    eh oui.... l'expo!! il faut que j'y reflechi sérieusement!!

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  3. This must look very dramatic.
    I have to see the sequins, I cannot visualize the shine, on this work of perfection?
    I like it but p prefer the colour of the background without the highlights, (sequins)the bird is fabulous, the greens have a very 3Deffect.Truly a masterpiece.
    I have seen this bird in Ddun and was fascinated by the long ribbony tail, floating behind, amazing creature to watch.

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  4. This one...is so so nice with the light glistening off the tail...Hmmmmmmmmm!!!

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