No.17 - Meenakshi and William

November 2010 - Here is a detail from the unfinished painting William and Meenakshi where I imagine the fanciful late 1800s meeting of Meenakshi, my greatgrandmother who was a Hindu Brahmin girl, and William, my greatgrandfather, who was a soldier in the British Army. William is one of several British Army ancestors of mine who travelled to India, as is Meenakshi one of several Hindu ancestors. The scene is one of gaeity, music and laughter, with a garland of orange marigolds linking them together. Between them, are some paint brushes - William was a painter, and a violin, which was an instrument that their son played.


The peacock in this painting is the reworking of an idea from painting No. 7 Ganesha and the Peacock Ladies where the peacock stands in front and his tail sweeps back and up to form the three ladies at the back. This time, the peacock looks quite different, being based on an antique Rajasthani ruby and enamel ring that i have which is 100 years old. The painting of the peacock was quite tricky and had to rework it several times using ink, watercolour, gouache as well as adding gum arabic to make the paint shiny and textured.



Through the window we can see a town and two towers. The towers are based on Gwalior Fort, India. Some of the design and decoration is similar, except that the real thing is yellow and part of a wall, not free standing towers.

The town is inspired by Pushkar, which has been a holy city for a very long time but has more recently become a sleazy hangout for western hippies - I found the place creepy but the photos are beautiful and i suppose that it must have once been a very lovely place indeed.

The lamp hanging in the window is based on a jumkha earring. I love how form repeat themselves in different ways, in architectural domes, in hats, in earrings ...

If you look closely, you will see cat Horatio sitting in the window. He doesn't look at us, the viewers of the picture, he's more interested in the view - cat's are like that ;-)

And there's the Ambassador car. It appears in nearly all my recent paintings.

The three sisters are myself and my two sisters. They are present. Watching.