Monday 26 November 2012

Hello all ! Its been quite a while since my last post (close to a year, I think). Blame it on the massive change in shifting countries and moving home and hearth to a new country - a beautiful country called Ukraine with beautiful people, beautiful flowers and strange weather (strange to me!). I long to write about all I've seen and experienced here but that is another story, for another time.
       Meanwhile, I've been staying mostly at home and exploring many new art forms. The one that I've discovered most recently is an old tradition from my own country, India. It is the tradition of applying mehndi or henna. Mehndi is traditionally applied to the palms of a girl just before her marriage. There are all sorts of stories and beliefs associated with it, such as the darker the colour of mehndi on a girl's palm, the more love she receives from her husband/mother-in-law and many others.
                  Apart from being a sweet tradition, the designs and patterns of mehndi are simply beautiful. Literally, they are simple and very beautiful. Most of the designs consist of repetition of simple loops, swirls, dots and paisleys. Peacocks are a common motif seen in most designs, as are bride and bridegroom. I tried a few mehndi designs on my sketchbook and was happy with the results. In this post I am showing two of my earliest attempts. More will follow in later posts. 



Paisleys in myriad sizes.

                                     
                                           A henna tattoo design.