Doodling with the Canopy

Here's one other mail that was long pending..

Towards the end of October was the 5th International Canopy conference 2009, held in India for the first time. Its main venue was IISc (Indian Institute of Science), Bangalore! The whole event was mainly organised by ATREE http://www.canopy2009.org/index.html . There were a whole bunch of talks, some very interesting Plenary speakers, poster presentations, fun hand's-on tree climbing demo's, art & photography contests... everything related to Forest Canopies.

So, after wondering 'if i should or not, should or not', i managed to doodle around something on paper, on the final day of the deadline. I guess, probably something just came upon me in my sleep.. coz i woke @ 6 with this vague idea in mind, immediately started doodling around, had absolutely no clue what it would turn out to be, breakfast was served to where i was painting, i think i just ran down for a quick lunch and the rest of the time, i was literally SO glued to my studio... and by 7 pm, i had this lil' window-like painting well framed and ready!
And after all this.. i looked at it and thought 'not bad i guess, i could enter it into the art contest'. A very simple technique of pen on paper, a wash of watercolor and a fine air-brush spray to add some mist.


Well, the painting did manage to get hold of the third place! And here comes the best part of the third place... i received an autographed copy of the book on canopy research "Its a Jungle Up There - More tales from the treetops" by Meg Lowman(who gave one of the best Plenary talks at the conference), and to add to this(it gets better)... the first three artists have won a trip to KMTR !!! (KMTR = Kaalakaad Mundunthurai Tiger reserve) I have been soooo longing to go to this place for a few years now. Well.. after being pushed from December, to Jan, to Feb.. its finally-Finally Happening!! :)

However.. taking a picture of this painting was quiet tricky as i had got it framed with a regular reflective glass. So, please excuse the reflection in it. And thanks to Deepa Mohan, who insisted on making me stand next to the painting for a picture. After she sent me the picture my mail.. i thought 'am glad she insisted!' :)