Devrai, Panchgani: Wall painting residency

WEEK IN PANCHGANI:

Nighttime forest drives, delicious homemade food, painting all day, passing out under the mango tree in the heat of the afternoon in a hammock, watching movies before lunch, chopping strawberries for wine, beer in hand and wind blowing, mid-day naps- sometimes between waking up and breakfast, black tea and biscuit-fruit breakfasts, spiced honey brandy and barbecued chicken and jacket potatoes, Angus and Julia Stone, mahua in the night under the mango tree, secret batcave exploring in the moonlight, watching the bronze and iron craftsmen work under the banyan tree, waking up in the projector room and the loveliest sleep everywhere.

We had SUCH a good time! Missed you both.

 Here's our first 2 days of work, mid-morning. The painting got built as we went along, and we responded to what it was asking for, and worked accordingly. 

Here's Madhoo, doing her South-Indian hero routine.

Here's my shawl-turban according to the time of day and position of sun. We would paint a little, step back and look a little, take pictures on the established tripod (that you can see on the right side of the frame) and listen to many, many playlists.

 The appearance of the rust-orange was a huge surprise every time I looked at it, though it was I who mixed that particular colour. I'm telling you, I could mix paint for a living.

We did the paint-and-see rather than the see-and-paint. I JUST saw a conservative, gathered-tentacled octopus in here.
We enjoyed and talked again and again about how the grey was the colour of the stone, and painting over white with it felt like we were making the white invisible.

Very close to completion, Madhoo does some finishing with (rust/white/grey/blue).
When I took the same picture on my phone camera without Madhoo and the ladder, it struck me how much the colour palette was like Guernica; cheerier, but definitely from the same families of colours.