Skin

Two months of fabulous sketching and painting at the prestigious Art Society of India was a great treat for me! It was a time of sweltering heat in Mumbai. Once you reach the premises , the timings were adhered to very professionally. The models were great and professional and knew exactly how to pose! 

One of my most memorable experiences while painting happened during the last session of the life drawing class. I had taken my oils and knives to paint . I usually use kerosene to wipe my knives and clean off the paint. The kerosene happened to be in an old bottle which was once a mineral water bottle. As I arrived at the session huffing and puffing due to the heat and was readying my stuff, I thought of drinking some water to dry my parched throat. So on one hand was my kerosene bottle and paints and nearby was the water bottle. I did the inevitable! Poured kerosene into my mouth thinking it was water!! I spat it out immediately but the whole group was in a state of flutter including the model! I had just started dabs of paint on the canvas but abandoned everything and went about fixing the problem. Thankfully I hadn't drunk a drop and so alive to write this post. Anyway I lost about an hour and then came up with this artwork in the next pose! It was an eventful painting day and a lesson learnt!!