Art by Tanaya
Story
They say 'Art is a mystical window to another world.'
We wholeheartedly believe so too. Thus, we work towards creating an artistically energising escape for our viewers. Exploring a wide range of media like oil paints, acrylics, ink, charcoal, pencil, and knives, we paint portraits and stories of the highly worshipped immortals from the rich Indian Mythology. Their vibrant appearance is enchanting and the positive energy is highly contagious. Our sole purpose is to connect with our viewers through this energy that our artwork emits.
More often than not, we are mesmerised by the aura of the divine beings like Buddha, Shiva, Krishna, and the Goddess Durga and we do our best to make justice to their beauty with knife-textures on canvas. We have no religion, neither we aim to promote any. We call ourselves creatively spiritual.
We are Tantraa, nurturing positive living through art.
Gallery
‘Navagraha’ meaning the nine planets are a significant part of the Hindu Astronomical Sphere. They are believed to be associated with one’s happiness, success, prosperity, and worshipped to overcome obstacles or bad luck. According to Hindu Astrology, the position of these planets during one’s birth determines his/her potential in life. Seven out of these nine, are named after the planets in the Solar System, and the other two - 'Rahu' & 'Ketu' are demons who tricked their way into this group. Though it is a fascinating story from the Hindu Astronomy, Navagraha is highly believed in and worshipped by a few. ​
Navagraha
Gajraj
One of the famous stories of Lord Ganesha (Gajraj) was the race with his brother Kartikeya to win a divine fruit of supreme knowledge and immortality. For the best one of his two sons to win it, Lord Shiva challenged that the first to encircle the world thrice would earn the fruit. While Kartikeya left for the task, Lord Ganesha quickly encircled his parents thrice stating “My parents are the whole universe to me!” and won the race with his wit. This piece is an artistic translation of Lord Ganesha's metaphoric answer, showing his love for his parents.
Nirvana
Nirvana literally means ‘blowing out’ or ‘extinguishing’ the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion. It is the transformed state of personality identified by freedom from
self-obsession, deep spiritual joy, compassion, and peace.
This knife-textured acrylic artwork depicts the story of Buddha reaching his ultimate goal of Nirvana. It revived the life around Buddha as they celebrated and bowed before him with love and honor.
Rudra
Rudra is a roop (form) of the almighty Shiva. While Lord Shiva is auspicious, pure, and calm, Rudra is an effulgent form of the same divine energy. Enraged in the presence of iniquity, his third eye - the symbol of his spiritual wisdom and power, opens. He is a ‘terror’ to the evil, eliminates it and ushers peace.
Yog
This knife textured oil artwork plays a metaphor for the human mind and its desires. The beautiful Lotus turns to face his sun – Buddha as he illuminates while meditating. Similarly, as we make peace with our inner-self, we become the ‘sun’ to the greatest possibilities that we’d want to revolve around us.
Durga
Durga is a warrior Goddess. Her Mythology centers around combating evils, demonic forces which threaten our peace prosperity and dharma (the eternal law of cosmos).
This artwork is dedicated to the women of today, who lead or are working to lead the world.
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She is Strong – shows up no matter what.
Fierce – fights the demons out there.
Knowledgeable – creates, innovates, nurtures.
Beautiful – a rare combination and it's difficult to take eyes off her.
Karma
This ‘pointillism’ form of artwork narrates a Karmic story:
A beautiful lotus lay injured and helpless for a strong wind took along three of its delicate petals. With no hope of survival, it surrendered to the thought of early death. That’s when a bright beam of sunlight greeted it in the form of Buddha. “All your life, you gave a glimpse of happiness to every pair of eyes that lay on you. How can I not do good to you, when you need it the most ?”
The kind eyes of Buddha looked at the injured lotus as he put all his power to heal it back to health and beauty.
Om Namah Shivaay
This knife textured artwork is an aniconic representation of one of the most worshipped immortals from the Indian Mythology - Lord Shiva.
Shiva the supreme deity, the transformer, and the destroyer typically carries a Trishula (Trident) as his weapon to destroy the evil. As a symbol, it represents Shiva’s three aspects of Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer. The Chandra (crescent moon), Shiva’s only ornament on his head, signifies his control over time and that he is the beginning and the end of everything in the universe. And the Linga is an aniconic representation of Shiva and is highly worshipped in temples.
Bodhi
The artwork portrays the process of enlightenment (Bodhi) that Gautam Buddha attained through meditation. His life after illumination is depicted through the vibrant colourful waves that take over his old wealthy yet meaningless life to give a meaningful path to his existence.
Kisna
Lord Krishna, one of the most worshipped deities in India is known for his wisdom and a prominent role in Mahabharata (one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India).
As renowned as this avatar of the Lord Vishnu (the preserver of the universe) was for his wins over evil, as a young Krishna, he was also well known for being a mischievous kid and an extraordinary flautist. This knife textured portrait captures the innocence of that young Lord Krishna playing his flute.
Siddhartha
Lost in chanting Buddha’s name, the disciple has a vision of Buddha appearing from the dark. The knife textured chant says “Buddham saranam gachchami, Sangham saranam gachchami” meaning – I take refuge in Buddha (the teacher), I take refuge in dharma (his teachings) and I take refuge in Sangha (the community of Monks where dharma is imparted).
Shakti
A tribute to all the Indian Goddesses, this painting encapsulates the kindness and power in their eyes. It also emphasizes on the power of Bindi - an accessory that the Goddesses and a lot of Indian women wear even today. The point between the eyebrows where it’s worn is the sixth chakra known as Ajna. It is believed to be an outlet of energy (Shakti) which rises from the base of our spine during meditation. The Bindi is worn to retain that potent energy. In this artwork, the vehement oscillation and ringing of the temple bells illustrate the energy of the two prominent elements of the Indian Goddesses – The Eyes and the Bindi.
Gopis
This painting signifies a harmonic relationship between the Gopis (Krishna’s female friends) and Krishna. The term Gopi is derived from the word Gopal, which is one of the many names of Lord Krishna. Known as an excellent flautist, the young Lord Krishna bonded musically with the masses and especially with his female friends. This freestyle knife textured artwork encapsulates the musical essence with the twist of Gopis playing the flute.
(This is not an original but a modified artwork painted 9 years ago by Tanaya while she trained to specialise in Oil Painting)