An artist's perspective

Baladev Maharatha is quite a whispered name in the artist society here in the town. Despite of being a celebrity artist from the state of Odisha and with many awards and exhibitions around to complement his tallent, he also is the principal of  BK College of Art and Craft. 

On the inauguration evening of the Konark Festival, this renowned artist placed his canvas just beside the performance stage and transferred the lively performance happened on stage to it. My roaming eye could not fail to freeze his creation with the brushes and a pallet of color.

P.S. Finally this blog counted until 300... Cheers.

Konark Festival 2011 (Day I) Odissi

The inaugural dance on Day I of Konark Festival was by Guru Sharmila Biswas and troupe from Odissi Vision and Movement Center, Kolakata. It was a fantastic performance divided in to 4 different parts or performances. The mesmerizing hour long performance was started with Ganesh Vandana, a prayer to the elephant headed God and was followed by Gativilas, Katha Surpanakha and lastly, Murchhana.



The ambiance and stage of Konark Open Air Auditorium...

Ganesha Vandana: a prayer to the elephant headed God, the remover of all hindrances.


Gativilas: It describes the attributes of an ideal performer, comparing her gaits, stances, energies and expressions with those of different animals.

Katha Surpanakha: It portrays the many contrasting emotions that exist together in a person. In this presentation, the dancers move away from the grossness of Surpanakha's appearance and mind, and attempt to create a more convincing character.

Murchhana: This dance highlights the special features of Odissi Mridanga, and the form of Odissi dance that emerges when accompanied by it.



The troupe and Guru Sharmila Biswas after the performance...

International Sand Art Festival 2011

The famous Chandrabhaga Beach of Konark also is the venue for 2011 International Sand Art Festival. As I experienced the same by person and sharing few photographs from the event.




The star of Odisha, renowned sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik...


The crowd on Chandrabhaga Beach to experience the event...



Artist Rrmy Geerts from Holland and her creation...




Artist Sridhar Dash from Odisha, India
His theme was based on preserving the heritage.



Artist Anupam Mohanty from Odisha, India
He wanted to showcase the car festival of Lord Jagannath.



Artist Gowri M. N. from Mysore, India





And here comes my personal favorite... by Artist Jitendra Kishore Jagadev from Odisha, India
A lively presentation of Buddhism.

There were 30 participants in total and they will be changing there themes everyday for five days to be judged. These all are from the inauguration day and few more will follow soon.

Konark Festival 2011 Inaugurated

Konark Festival, the annual classical dance festival has its reputation beyond the world. Performances by the celebrity classical dancers around India every year in the Open Air Theater in Konark has its own charm with the infamous 'Sun Temple' as the back drop to the stage. This year the festival is scheduled from 1st to 5th of December.

Inauguration ceremony...


Guests of honor... and the famous Sun Temple in the back drop.


The hosts for the first evening...


Venue
Open Air Auditorium, Konark, Odisha

Dates
1st December 2011 to 5th December 2011

Konark Festival 2011

Calendar 2011, December

Finally the year 2011 is approaching towards its completion.


Download high resolution HERE.

This photograph (the last one of London series 2011) is dedicated to the awesome weather I experienced during my stay in the country. Being a avid lover of snow, I enjoyed the extreme weather to its fullest. Dear God blessed me again with loads and loads of snowfall. Britishers even were literally astonished and explained that this is the heaviest snowfall in last few decades... nothing could be better than this for me!!
This particular photograph was taken just before the Christmas day in the year 2010 somewhere in the outskirts of Slough, a suburb of London while walking to Windsor on extremely slippery road and cold weather but the white layer around everywhere was a GOOD enough reason to take a stroll around ;)

I miss You

I remember us, walking side by side...
You holding my hand but thinking something else,
I was speaking nonsense and you singing Lady Gaga...

Somewhere I stopped and you walked out of the frame...
Before any realization we both were beyond the horizon of each other,
Now with gray hairs and newly aged heart, I really do miss you...

International Puri Beach Festival 2011

On the fifth evening of 17th International Puri Beach Festival, a fantastic Odishi performance by students of 'Utkal University of Culture, Odisha'.

'L' for Love

Now 'm behaving like a kid.... there is no limit of my happiness. Finally my LOVE is here, a L series lens from Canon. I remember the first day when I used one of my very good friend Addy's 70-200 L f4 non IS... And since then when ever I needed a tele-lens and even though canon 75-250mm was affordable as well as gives decent results, there was a wild and dominant thought in my mind always, a tele lens means a 'L' lens... no compromise on this. Almost after 3 years of trying my hands on Addy's 'Sattar-doosoo', my own glass 'The White Barrel' is in my hands now which I received just an hour before after numerous unsuccessful attempts in last 2 years. The one I acquired now is exactly same to the one I tried but the dream one is with a little different spec. I want THE 70-200 L f2.8 IS Mark II, one hell of a lens... Hopefully in next 2 years because it costs me a fortune ;)

What next!!! An extender, 1.4 or 1.6... anything will do :D

P.S. Ah... just noticed. this is the 99th post of the year 2011 :)

Creativity

On a cold & windy October day, I was roaming around UCL... Yes, 'University College of London'. After entering the main entry my eyes were stuck on this model. A naked century old statue has transformed to a urban dude with this trendy jeans and head band. Quite creative, after all a Londoner he is ;)