23rd Jan 2022 Dr Beena
Hello everyone, wherever you may be, I hope all are fine😊. The weather in Kuching was pretty dismal, with a stretch of rainy days with grey skies ☹. But it is nothing like what happened in Tonga☹☹. Tonga is a laid back and idyllic place. However, the recent images were frightening.
Mr Nandakumar sent me his watercolour painting of a street corner with a surprising twist out of the blue. He said he accidentally spilt water over his art and salvaged it. It is a corner street, depicting a double-decker bus, a cyclist and a lady carrying an umbrella. Using monochrome grey, I feel that it might be a rainy day. The cyclist is rushing off on his errand. The lady, too, maybe wanting to get to work or home. The people in the double-decker bus may be enjoying the ride protected from the rain. Nevertheless, life still carries on, rain or shine, whatever the weather may be😊.
I liked this painting because, despite the accident, Mr Nandakumar did not trash it. Instead, he was creative about it. Today, I happened to read an article about healthy ageing and creativity. Besides diet, exercise, and regular health checkups, another aspect that helps is creativity. One can be creative in many ways. One can use one’s skill to: write children stories, do illustrations or do carpentry. One can learn a new language or teach younger people about coping skills. The list is endless. Being engaged in some form of novel activity that is creative helps our health.
I hope this message will help you reflect on creativity. Till the next musing, rain or shine, creativity thrives😊.
7 thoughts on “Rain Or Shine”
This painting speaks to me for some reason. Seems to have so much emotion despite the lack of color. …. and,of course, I love the fact that a cyclist features prominently in the painting :-).
Thanks for sharing.
Allan
Allan thats why despite that happy accident I wanted to write a story.:). Rain evokes certain thoughts. They can be happy, sad, frustrating, irritation or just the right mood to go back to sleep. Bizarre isnt it?:)
Hello Allan
Glad to note that you liked my painting ‘street corner’
When I spilt water I had no idea what it would turn out to be, I just had to keep working on the wet areas as fast as possible
I just followed my intuition, the end result seems appealing.
Thanks for Your comments
I loved the art even before I read the post. Now I love it more. A happy and beautiful accident 🙂
Yes, “a happy accident” is the right way to describe this very attractive painting. I remember watching a few artists literally creating accidents. If for one, Dali loved to do that with panache. Only yesterday I watched Chinese artist Zhao Xiaoli creating an “accidental” masterpiece. As for me I’ll just sip the philosophy out of all this: Let it go and be happy with it.
Thank again Nandakumar and Beena for sharing this picture.
I have been looking at this painting long and hard enough to realize that there is so much expression in a few blotches at first look.
It is truly artistic that your painting creates so much meaning and expression from a street corner on a rainy day.
Without the use of colours a beautiful piece of work that speaks to us.
Great. I can think of a nice poem I read recently by Eleanor Palmer.
From a Street Corner
by Eleanor Palmer Hammond
Like snails I see the people go
Along the pavement, row on row;
And each one on his shoulder bears
His coiling shell of petty cares—
The spiral of his own affairs.
Some peer about, some creep on blind,
But not one leaves his shell behind.
And I, who think I see so well,
Peer at the rest, but cannot tell
How much is cut off by my shell.
Great work keep it up