Looking at You

On that day when my husband told me that he saw her sad, I didn’t take it seriously. Because somewhere in my mind she created an impression that she is a source of positive energy, happiness and joy. But when I received her messages “Su where are you?” on my phone then I thought okay that means she need me now. I went to shop a flower bouquet to cheer her up and knocked her door. Her swallowed eyes and heavy voice told me that she cried a lot and she is seriously very sad. And this surprised me because I never thought of seeing her sad. Well, she cooked my favorite food and though I was full, I sat with her and we had dinner together. The reason behind her sadness was, she was counting only those things that she couldn’t and I would say that she didn’t think that important to achieve. But in my view she is a very successful, independent (thinking wise and financially) , golden heart lady who can bring smile even on a dying person’s face too. That means she is someone what everyone want to be like, and all of us want to have a friend like her….don’t we? Though she doesn’t hold a PhD/Doctor/ Business degree but she has everything to be loved and respected. The only thing I tried to make her understand that, a Sunflower not always face towards the Sun, sometimes it looks at you, the bright you ….look at your brighter side and be happy. In our lives we set a goal, we want to become like someone (hero) but when we see someone close / in-front of us who have a success story then we start appreciating and admiring them and somewhere in our mind we start following them…even if their journey is opposite to our that hero….just like how my sunflower is looking at you…that you standing opposite to the Sun (in my painting). I am glad I was able to bring the smile back on her face through my ‘Looking at You’ painting. 🙂

Journey of this painting:

Painting core of a sunflower is a big challenge. But as I was ready to accept the challenge (to see my beautiful friend’s happy face again), I thought to start painting with what I am comfortable with. Yes. I am good in drawing petals. Draw a small circle (for core), then a big circle around it and sketch the petals … this way petals will be of almost equal length. I colored the petals though layering after layering … adding more values … shadows and shines. It took me 4 days to complete 44 petals. Then, the real challenge began … I was all the way balancing my life as a mom, house wife, cook, dedicated artist and a new role added as a representative of around 25 artists for the biggest month long holiday sale event in our gallery. My this new responsibility kept me busy most of the time everyday…. average 10+ emails a day, meetings, coordinating with 8 others guilds of artists and so on. I was almost forced to keep myself away from canvas and colors.

All time while I was busy in baby seating, house hold chores, cooking, fulfilling my gallery responsibilities, even while sleeping I kept on thinking how to achieve the realism (not super realism) of the core of a sunflower. Tried many ways but failed, kept trying and then erasing with adding more color on top….. suddenly some geometry shape came in front of my vision (solid state geometry that I did on my 9th grade) . The centre of the core is designed with three small triangles and then that same shape repeated though out the core with different (gradually increasing) dimensions … they are identical, symmetrical, gradually growing in a specific ratio … now I got the hidden math in the brightest flower of the nature … now I needed to mange time for practice….. only practice can make this difficult job perfect.

Another challenge was that, I had only 3 days in my hand before the submission deadline ….. last 3 days I worked 10 hours a day (10:30 am to 5:30 pm , 7pm to 10 pm)….. replied/wrote emails 10:30pm -12 am …. helped son, husband 6 – 8:30 am ….. At last when I saw a big and bright smile on my friend’s face, then I realized that my hard work is paid off.