Some Paintings Do Have A Story...

Wheat Harvest, Early Summer Noida Villages, India 

Oil on Canvas, 38.5cm x 38.5cm, April 2008. Sold

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Some paintings do have a story...
And this one sure does have one!

It was my first of series of paintings I did in plein air just before the wheat harvest, in fields along Yumuna river in Noida (UP) India.

I went in with my painting equipments et al in the late afternoon ...as in this region the April sun can be very strong early on.. I found the wheat just the right colour.. whitish yellow, ripen..and the plant golden yellow.

Finding a spot I went about starting my work... Working in oils is always messy and complicated and doing it outdoors can be sometimes tormenting!!
I was quite happy this painting came out well... Some don't and then there is a struggle to make it well, and I hate that moment - when the painting is not getting the right look!! Thus immersed in work, trying to finish the painting, I noticed a small girl standing close to my elbow... she blurted out a startled "Hello!!" I realised on the road next to the fields a big black car has quietly stopped by... Next to it her, almost behind my back were here parents. All ogling at the canvas...

Crowds, passerby coming up and asking questions is part of plein air adventure.. unless it's the police or the military, which can be sometimes complicated!!

When I smiled at them, the usual conversation followed...

"Wow! lovely!! You just did that...? We saw you when going towards our farmhouse an hour back... you paint so fast, do you sell? etc etc".

They went away promising to come over to my studio and buying... (which of course they never did!!)

By the time I cleaned all the brushes, palette and packed up, it was dark and I dumped all paints, oils, easels into the back seat and only the wet painting in the dicky of the car- the boot of a car... The biggest problem of oil is to bring back 'wet painting' home safely... My work is thick impasto, with fresh colours like a relief.. a kind of a torte!! One little touch or getting rubbed softly, brushed by anything as gentle as the end of your skirt or your shirt sleeves will completely ruin it...

I kept the wet canvas on the floor of the car dicky.

Which I generally keep empty for wet paintings.

On the way home I stopped by for some tea at my friend's small tea shop next to the fields. Back home I didn't want to open the boot/dicky in the dark and bring out the wet canvas and carry it up three floors... So left it to do so the next day. Rest of my painting gear lies always in the car.

Next day I had some work in the day in Delhi so I left in my car and after finishing my work I drove straight back to the Noida fields... I started a new work as soon as I reached without even taking out the wet one done last evening..so that once done I can lineup the two works and compare and also do the last minute touch ups..

So once done with the second painting I went to my car to open the dicky/boot... and what I saw broke my heart!! In the night I hadn't realised the existence of an old stupid empty plastic bottle!! Which had been using the wet canvas as a dance floor...

So here it was, a finished work had a worthless plastic bottle rolling all over it the whole time I was driving on bumpy roads...

Many of my works are very spontaneous and I don't rub and repaint over and over. I like the strokes to show... And here all those lovely thick layers of colour impasto were all smothered!!  It had never happened before in this scale, though it does happen.

I don't like to sit on a work which I have once finished...

Anyway with a dogged determination I went about recreating. At the end though I doubt anybody can make out that this painting had a makeover?!! Can you?

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