Mahendra Drawings and Hobbies
It is important to keep as active as possible both physically and mentally in order to maintain, or at least decrease the rate of decline inevitably associated with ageing .
Reading, discussing important topics, keeping abreast of news, socialising, regular moderate physical activity such as walking, jogging ( if you like it), sports such as badminton, tennis or as in my case , The Noble Eighteen Hole Path), are just a few examples of what you can do apart from taking your medication regularly, having a sensible diet and keeping your weight within limits.
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| All my drawings are based on photographs and this is an Indian musician playing a string instrument, taken ina visit to India a few years ago |
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| This is Mam Tor in the Peak District in Derbyshire, my cousin and his wife at the top |
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Taken in Anuradhapura, pretending to be Rodin’s Thunker!
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| In Galle Fort Sri Lanka underground |
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| Self portrait |
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| A Sri Lankan woman cooking at a rest stop on the way to Kandy |
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| Using my iPad sitting in a sofa in my old house |
The blog is a readily available and fun way of keeping in touch with your batch colleagues and is strongly recommended.
I joined various social clubs which provide these for me in a rewarding and enjoyable manner. I recently joined the Sale Moor Art Club where we meet once a week for two hours. It has given me the opportunity to use a medium new to me, Charcoal. It is a great medium if you like light and shade and contrasts Nihal was very keen for me to share some of my work with you.
From Dhushy Vefavanam
ReplyDeleteMahendra your charcoal drawings are lovely and fascinating. Your a person who has multiple interests and are so inspiring to us all.
I am impressed by your note on drawings and hobbies. My congratulations to you.
With Best Wishes
Dhushy
Mahendra
ReplyDeleteCongratulations ! You are multitalented. You are a Musician, Singer, Artist, Blog admistrator etc.leaving alone being a Neurologist.
I have seen your own self portrait drawing earlier and now I see in charcoal. I can recognise you. It is great. Other charcoal drawings too are lovely. Well done ! Keep it up.
We should greatful to Lucky for creating our Blog.
We are thankful to you for being our Blog administrator and keeping our Blog alive. Long live our Blog !
Wishing you all the best !
Chira
Mahendra
DeleteSorry, I spelt grateful wrong.
Chira
Mahen, the readers of the blog should take your advice seriously. Otherwise we will turn into 'space occupying lesions!' Your drawings are great, and I believe this is a new medium for you. I remember seeing some of your paintings earlier. It is also great that you have connected with a new group of people.
ReplyDeleteIt is so important to keep moving, but it is discouraging to see so many people ignoring the importance of that. Thanks to Bora and Harshi I connected with a young person who gives lessons in Line Dancing at the Royal College Sports complex. I am planning to check out those classes. (Now that I have announced it publicly, I will definitely have to follow through, won't I?)
Hi Speedy, you never cease to amaze me. You are so multi talented! Your charcoal drawings are superb. I love your self portrait... It has captured your personality so well even down to the twinkle in your eyes !
ReplyDeleteYour commitment to keep our Batch Blog alive is amazing. We are eternally indebted to Lucky and you. We are all aware of the sound advice you give about keeping our brain active .. and not be just Space occupying lesions as Bunter has stated. We just need to find out own way to do it and persevere.
Bless you Speedy.
Love Suri
Thanks Dhushy, Srianee, Chira and Suri for your appreciative comments. I loved Srianee’s SOL metaphor! All four of you are living examples of taking on the challenge of growing older gracefully..
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing a great collection of paintings. The black and white and the shades of grey of charcoal adds to the atmosphere, ambience and sophistication of the paintings. You are indeed a talented painter. It amazes me how little of your work has been seen in the Blog. I must add this comment to your other talents like music and philosophical writings. When many of our true and ardent supporters of the blog have now moved away to another realm you should forget your modesty and include more of your work.
ReplyDeleteYou have indeed captured the intensity on the face of musician as he is entranced by the melodic moods of the raga. I like the rugged landscape of the peak district. This somehow brings home images of “ Goodbye Yellow Brick road form Wizard of Oz and Elton John’s perennial hit.
“A penny for your thoughts” as you admire the beauty of Anuradhapura, that ancient city. The self-portrait is a masterpiece. It is such a true likeness of the artist. It brings back memories of the famous “Ellegy in a country churchyard “ by Thomas Gray. The darkness created by the charcoal makes certain he is ‘born to blush unseen’. I like the simple and common cooking scene which is imprinted in our minds since childhood. The iPad and the sofa is such a Chrismassy scene. So very current and timely as we wrap up for the winter.
Paintings do enhance and enrich the blog. Relevant captions and narratives do magnify and augment the artwork and makes it so much easier for other to appreciate and comment.
Hobbies are so very personal at any age. Running and walking in Regent’s Park for around 40 minutes every day is a part of my routine. The changing seasons gives me a different landscape. In the spring and summer I sit in the Queen Mary Rose Garden to appreciate its beauty allowing my mind to wander. In the autumn and winter seated by the lake I watch the birds in the water feeding and frolicking.
ReplyDeleteAt home I sit in my rocking chair to blog and also keep in touch with my school and friends through the Website I maintain for the school. I enjoy writing sometimes to the newspapers and to various other organisations.
Painting is a great hobby which helps me to meditate and be mindful.
The grandchildren keep me busy too. Babysitting and playing cricket and football with them keep my joints oiled and moving.
Lords cricket grounds is a short walk away and I watch the games in the summer.
Time seems to fly past. I do miss the many friends and relatives including my parents who have gone before me. I am so grateful they were in my life.
Nihal, I am pleased that you liked my drawings and accompanying notes. I enjoy doing creative things and art, reading, writing short stories and music keeps me busy and happy. You obviously have a busy and fulfilling life and I am very happy for you.
ReplyDeleteThe Blog is something I greatly value and I am delighted to keep it going as long as possible.
From google. AI sunmmary. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a famous 1751 poem by Thomas Gray that meditates on death, social class, and the universal fate of humanity. Set in a rural churchyard, the poem contrasts the simple lives of the poor with the potential for greatness that was never realised, and concludes with the poet contemplating his own mortality and legacy. It is written in quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme and is known for its lyrical beauty and universal themes..
ReplyDeleteI can see why you were reminded of that famous poem as I sat contemplating in the historic city of Anuradhapura
Mahendra
ReplyDeleteI thought of Grays Ellegy because of what Path Cooray said about dark skinned people that they were born to blush unseen.
Hi Mahen
ReplyDeleteThe drawings were great; another aspect of your talent and versatility.Thanks for stressing the value of hobbies which involve both mental and physical activity. Eighteen holes of golf and engaging with people on the nineteenth hole is a good hobby.
Thanks for keeping the Blog ticking
Mahen
ReplyDeleteI like the way you have created the walls in the Galle Fort. It has come out so well. I know how hard it is to create that effect as I have tried it so many times without much success. You have done the light entering the tunnel so very well. It is a great painting.
The interpretations of a painting can be many and varied. On second thought the guy relaxing in Anuradhapura is not admiring the beauty of the ancient ruins. He is leaning forwards and watching something more intently. Perhaps a group of beautiful girls were passing by clad in brilliant white wearing the “osariya” carrying bunches of flowers to offer at the temple. Their titillations and the wiggle of their hips were all too much for him.
ReplyDeleteThe interpretation of a painting is mostly personal guided by the caption given by the artist and his intent. This explanation reflects my own feelings. A person appreciating the ancient ruins and its glorious past would be leaning back , more relaxed, with his head held high.
Whatever the interpretations this is indeed a lovely painting.
Nihal, I like the interpretation of Rodin's thinker given as ".
DeleteInternal Struggle: The pose—fist to teeth, leaning forward—shows intense concentration, symbolizing the painful, agonizing process of forming ideas and understanding existence."
Nihal and Mahen, your comments made me think about what my younger daughter once told me. Her PhD in History of Art was on the images of St. Clare (contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi). My daughter said that the field of art history is about weaving a good story around a work of art. The artist may have depicted his or her interpretation of an event or person. But, the observer can invent whatever they wish about the artist's intentions!
Delete(St. Clare is depicted wearing a brown habit in many religious paintings of that period.)
Srianee
DeleteI agree with your daughter entirely. "It's in the eye of the beholder" .The interpretation is subjective and depends entirely on the individual's personal perspective, taste, or feelings. It is also true "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," to explain differing opinions on art.
Srianee
ReplyDeleteI agree with your daughter entirely. "It's in the eye of the beholder" .The interpretation is subjective and depends entirely on the individual's personal perspective, taste, or feelings. It is also true "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," to explain differing opinions on art.
Mahen, Sorry about the delayed response-
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your collection of charcoal drawings which have been in obscurity until now-
The one I like best is your self portrait - there is no mistaking who it is!
The others , as has been opined are indeed subject to interpretation.
Many old masters used charcoal as a base for their final works .
The first to use charcoal has been Albrecht Durer who did the famous “Praying Hands” though the latter not in charcoal.
Da Vinci did many charcoals- the most famous being ‘The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St.John the Baptist’ a small print of which hangs in my corridor. Under infrared light,the charcoal is said to be visible, though very close inspection of my print has not revealed to me any trace of it.
The ‘underdrawing’ of the Vitruvian man is also said to be in charcoal though I cannot be certain . I tried to refer to my library of artists and their works-a gift to me by Ana - all intact but for the ONE missing volume - Leonardo da Vinci which has mysteriously disappeared! Books have a way of disappearing- only just once have I had a book I have lent returned to me !! These days when people ask to borrow I give them knowing Iam unlikely see them again! -
I wish all our friends a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New year 🎄
Rohini, I agree with you and others that Mahen's self portrait is the best so far! I'm sure he will be doing better and better drawings as time goes on. I hope he will continue to share them with us .
ReplyDeleteI was interested in what you wrote about Albrecht Dürer. Dürer did a lot of drawings and was known for his print making. He was born in Nuremburg and was also buried there. My daughter and family lived there for about 8 years and on one of my visits Manjula took me to visit his gravesite. In some of his drawings he used a symbol next to his signature - the A sitting on top of the D. When my daughter has some personalized stationary printed, she used a variation of that with her initials!
I was sorry to read about your missing Da Vinci volume. That is so frustrating because it is one in a series of books. In some of my father's books he has pasted this poem. I don't know if he wrote it, but here it is:
"If thou art borrowed by a friend,
Right welcome shall he be
To read, to study, not to lend
But to return to me.
Not that imparted knowledge doth
Diminished learning store,
But books I find when often lent
Returned to me no more."
Thank you Bunter, Very interesting - shall be in touch - Have a glorious festive season!
ReplyDelete