The work reminded me of a maharaja and a mandala, hence this funny amalgamation!
Masks have interested me for much of my life. Their simplicity, but at the same time enormous eloquence has always fascinated me.
Mandalarajah was first set up with pencil, some parts were drawn by hand like the eyes, others using compasses and various stencils.
A pair of compasses was used for the headdress, a variety of other stencils were useful for many forms.
Once I am satisfied with the outline in pencil, the colouring in begins, and this is done in layers. I start with coloured pencils, then all kinds of colouring pens, brush pencils and pens are used.
To achieve a nice whole, you can see that colour contrasts are used here. Green/blue and red/orange-like shades are each other's opposites, but also complement each other at the same time, making all colours in the work more expressive. The eyes are coloured in fluorescent yellow and framed in black to make them more expressive.
This work fits well on a blank wall in a quiet or austere interior.
As a child, I could spend hours drawing at the kitchen table at home. Later in life, I enjoyed years of artistic training and although I learnt a lot, at some point I detached myself from wanting to conform to artistic dogma because it hindered me. I.. Read more…