Backtracking....

This last weekend gave us an extra day with the holiday known as Ugadi. Not sure what the holiday is about, but its a religious one, and I paid homage to the gods of the beach, booze and relaxation. Andrea , Fab and I took off to Mahaballipuram..a place that I had previously gone during the Diwali break. It was hot as hell (over 40 degrees celcius) but the pool and ocean helped with the heat immensely. As well, friends from Toronto, Ananda and Jose are travelling in India and happened to meet up with us for the weekend. We drank "French" wine, Tamil Nadu beer, ate lots of seafood, rode around on mopeds, swapped books and generally caught up by the pool. It was lovely...thanks again for the good company guys!

The best part of the trip was that I was able to visit the small studio of two Rajasthani artists whose art work was the inspiration for my monochromatic jazz portraits. I had seen their artwork when I was in Maha the first time, fell in love with it and tried the watercolour technique with the Thelonius Monk portrait almost immediately after I got back. This time, I spoke with them about their technique and their painting history. It was very interesting, and I left with two paintings and some photographs.