India

India is total immersion in color, heat, noise and smells. Last summer's visit to India inspired me to return to figuration, such was the press of bodies and unique costumes of the people I encountered. People, at work in their daily lives in humble occupations, plowing the land, washing clothes in the Ganges River and praying at the evening fire ceremony in the temple, were striking in their simplicity and beauty. I made sketches in the crowds, took photographs and worked these impressions up into a series of paintings on my return.

The contrast between the ancient rhythms of work and today's modern technology is stark in India, where the wooden boats are rowed by hand and an old man sells memory cards by the Ganges. Energetic laundry-men pound washing on stones while customers wait, squinting at their Blackberries. Women wreathed in jasmine and gloriously colored silk, juggle babies, cell phones, shopping. A farmer sings to his water buffalo as he plows the red earth or herds his crops to market on the road to Bangalore. At dawn, the guru of Lali Ghat performs his morning ablutions to Shiva on the banks of the Ganges while tourists drift past on the river, snapping pictures in time to the dipping of wooden oars. Holy men with long hair and wild red eyes assess the crowds. In the temple, people press forward, praying and pushing to get a glimpse of a holy statue of the elephant god. Warm stones on bare feet, incense, chanting and the ringing of temple bells create an atmosphere of mystery as night falls. An old woman pours hot oil on the stones and whispers a few words to the darkness

Back to Main Page
For further information, contact: info@lizreday.com

© Copyright 2000-2010 Liz Reday