Gouache on a background of acrylic and gesso on paper
The theme for this issue of the Teacher Plus magazine was bullying in schools. Read the cover story by Chintan Girish Modi here.
I found that the Warli folk-art form of Western India lent itself perfectly to the nuances I wanted to convey.
Last year I illustrated a few of Sarah Teasdale’s poems for Shalini on her birthday, and put them together into a little book to give her. I used acrylic paints (some of my first acrylic paintings, these were) with a palette knife. The approach to making the pictures was really quite experimental, and so, also fun.
Morning
I went out on an April morning
All alone, for my heart was high,
I was a child of the shining meadow,
I was a sister of the sky.
There in the windy flood of morning
Longing lifted its weight from me,
Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering,
Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.
Meadowlarks
In the silver light after a storm,
Under dripping boughs of bright new green,
I take the low path to hear the meadowlarks
Alone and high-hearted as if I were a queen.
What have I to fear in life or death
Who have known three things: the kiss in the night,
The white flying joy when a song is born,
And meadowlarks whistling in silver light.
