September 2010 - In Coromandel Chintz, i took a risk and went off on a tangent. In some ways i was successful but in others, it left me dissatisfied.
The Coromandel is a coastline area of India - the south eastern part, a long strip of coastline which was been visited by traders from the west since at least 300AD. The traders sought pearls and spice, and furniture, and then much later in 1600 and 1700s they came for the painted and printed fabric known as Chintz. In the west, this chintz was used by many different social classes, for furnishing and for clothes. It was a huge business, particularly for Dutch traders. One of the most popular designs in Chintz was the Moghul Tree of Life design. The colours used in these chintzes were reds, pinks, and turquoise blues. As with much of Islamic design, there were usually not figures (people) included in the designs, but flowers, birds and fruits were used in abundance.
My father's mother's family were from the Coromandel region. Leading up to this time, i had been immersed in history of the region, mainly about pearl diving but also about chintzes. I planned to do two paintings, one about chintz and the other about pearl fishing.
And so, i decided to create a Tree of Life inspired by Coromandel Chintz. I think that the drawing/design part went quite well, and the painting of it was pretty good too but i found that i did not like the chintz limited colour palette of pinks, reds and turquoise - which seemed to work beautifully in textiles but not so well on paper. And, more than anything else, i found that i felt unhappy without figures/people in my picture! I felt that the picture had no soul without people. I learned an important lesson about myself!
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