Purdah Painting - Work In Progress
When I made the pour for this canvas, I was extremely worried as I had recently moved into my apartment and the floors were completely uneven. I knew I was most likely going to have an issue with paint rolling off to one side. Luckily I was able to stabilize the canvas by using a cork bulletin board as a base and newspapers to help stabilize the canvas. I poured this canvas on 1/13/2019.
When I start a painting, I only think initially of the colors I would like the background to be. All of the designs are developed later. All I wanted was, for this canvas to be gold. Not just, one shade either, I wanted it to be different shades and hues of gold: medium gold, antique gold, rose gold, bronze, copper, etc. ALL OF THE GOLD!
With this painting, I took a very long time to formulate my concept. I knew that I wanted this to be a grand piece. Something that really pushed my boundaries when it came to techniques and painting skills. I have always wanted to create painting that was influenced by the beautiful palaces, temples and architecture in India prior to the Mughal rule. Now for those of you who do not know, the Mughal Empire in India reigned from 1526 A.D. to 1857 A.D. That’s 330 years. In that time, many Hindu temples, and much architecture was destroyed, as it first was of another religion depicting different Gods and Goddesses and also, because much of the art depicted people and animals. Islamic art prohibits the representation of animals and humans in their art and architecture. After the Mughal Empire ended, it was succeeded by the British Empire in India which began in 1858 to 1947. That’s another 89 years.
I had to go pretty far back in history to get an idea of what types of art and architecture pre-dated the reign of these empires, which generally led me to southern Indian temples and palaces.
I decided I want to create a hallway, or an entrance of some sort, leading up to a set of doors which would look like the doors to my maternal grandparents house, so I started to brainstorm. I also wanted there to be a strong feminine energy anchoring to this painting.
Tested out very rough sketches on Procreate
I realized that I had a lot of lines to draw so instead of having to erase more lines than I needed to keep I decided to tape string to the sides which would show me exactly which sections I would need to draw for the doorways.
After the doorways were drawn in, I felt like I needed to really think about how I wanted to work on this painting and what I wanted to include in it. I wanted to include a couple of animals in to the artwork and asked people to provide their input on the types of animals they think of when thinking of India. Too many people said dogs…I don’t know why. Anywho… I decided on monkeys and peacocks. I also needed to include gopis, and this time I decided to do it on a grand scale.
Hehe take a look at my behind the scenes of drawing a concept for the gopis below.
After drawing a few mock ups of the gopis, I decided that instead of just having a few ladies either sitting or walking in the painting, I wanted there to be a very strong and feminine presence. Since this painting was supposed to show the entrance to a section of a palace, I wanted it to be very grand. I thought of the idea of having two large statues of gopis welcoming women into this part of the palace.
Just a little bit of history… many palaces have tended to have a section that was dedicated to women. This is where the queens, princess, and their ladies would stay. In many palaces, men were not allowed to come into these areas. Women were generally made to cover their faces in public so that men could not see them. This was a part of the palace where women could truly be themselves and not have to live with their faces covered. Within houses even, there was a part of the house that could be sectioned off so that men could meet and the women of the house would be separate and take care of the house. The sectioning that separated women from men is called a ‘Purdah’. Once the Mughals reigned, the purdah system became more widely implemented in India and the covering of women’s faces and bodies became more enforced. Women were not able to express their sensuality or sexuality. Women who showed their faces or skin were seen as potential problems that could harm the honor of the family. How women have dressed or expressed themselves has long been dictated by men. I wanted this painting to reflect that even though these women were covered, they still had sensuality and were still comfortable in their own skins.
Ok, so I will admit, drawing people is not my strong suit. I mean, that’s why my comic characters are stick figures! So I had to learn about proportions first. I also needed to make some rough sketches. So after, a lot of thinking and wondering if I will be able to do this, I decided to finally go for it and draw the two gopis. First I made the gopi that would stand on the right side of the entrance and then I made a mirror image of it by transferring it to another page, and then voila! Two gopis.
Take a look at the process of making both of the gopis and then the transfer process of putting them on the canvas. Please note that while I was transferring them to the canvas, I applied very little pressure on to the canvas, or order to prevent stretching of the canvas.
Part II
After the blue print was completed for the entire canvas, I started applying the base coats for the painting. Originally I wanted all the of the parts that were going to painted on to be various tones of red. After working on the corridor and the first doorway, I realized that the painting wouldn’t look good with all of that red, so I decided to do a few test swatches.
I wanted to add a bit more color to the painting, and was drawn to the blues and greens to kind of break up the red. In the video below, I show you the process of applying the base coat of the corridor, and the first and second doorways.