Kenistudio

The Divine Story of Vamana and Mahabali Multiple lifetimes ago, the souls of Vasudeva and Devaki engaged in long and grueling austerities. When Lord Shri Hari appeared, pleased with their devotion, and asked them, they wished for only one thing - to bear the Supreme Lord Himself as their child. While we famously know them as the parents of Lord Krishna, their divine wish was first fulfilled when Shri Hari took avatar as Vamana, a brahmin boy, born to them in an earlier incarnation as Kashyapa and Aditi. The Tale of King Mahabali During the era of King Mahabali, a formidable ruler who had conquered the heavens, completed 99 grand yagnyas. As he began his 100th, Indra grew fearful. Completing a hundred yagnyas would automatically grant Mahabali the throne of Indra. Desperate to safeguard the balance, Indra approached Lord Shri Hari for help. Responding to the prayers of the devas, Shri Hari took the form of Vamana. Shortly after His upanayana, the young Lord walked toward Mahabali’s yagn...

Beyond the Three Paces - Capturing Mahabali’s True Sacrifice in the Vamana Avatar Painting   Finding the perfect narrative moment to depict an Avatar of Vishnu is always a spiritual and a creative challenge. My goal is never to just illustrate a story. It is to capture the absolute essence and philosophical core of the Avatara.  When I began conceptualizing the Vamana Avatar painting, I knew I had to go beyond the usual dynamic imagery of the three paces and Trivikrama’s giant form. Those are powerful moments, but they are not the central points. My composition is a direct expression of the Avatar's core: Atma Nivedana, or the total surrender of oneself. The true resolution of the Vamana story isn't about Mahabali losing his kingdom. It is about his offering. Him realizing that after everything else has been claimed, the only real thing he could offer is his own self. He asks Vamana, who is both the Supreme Lord and his beloved guest, to place the final step upon his ego, effe...

Painting Matsya Avatar - The Spiritual Irony of Protecting the Protector The first of the Dashavatara series painting, the Matsya Avatara, looked quite straightforward in the beginning. A huge fish, Matsya, guiding the precious ship of survivors through the roaring pralaya waters. But I thought, what is the true essence of this avatara? The answer was protection. Of course, we know who protects us. Who other than Lord ShriHari has the capability to sustain the universe? ​A few days later, I was reading a passage from the Bhagavata Purana where Krishna is ready to leave Indraprastha for Dwaraka after the Pandavas have settled in. Yudhishthira, overflowing with love for Krishna, insists that the Lord cannot travel alone and requires bodyguards. It struck me as profound. Why would the Being who safeguards the entire cosmos need protection from mere thieves and wild animals? Yet Krishna accepts the gesture without a second thought. He is not filled with ego. He is complete. So, when He see...

Garuda vs Kaliya. My contemplation of the story from Shrimad Bhagavata Purana.  This is my oil-on-canvas painting that depicts Garuda attacking Kaliya, the serpent king, in an episode from the Shrimad Bhagavata Purana. I wanted to capture the moment when Kaliya’s pride brings him face to face with the consequences of his actions. The story begins in Ramanaka Island, where the serpent race lived under the fear of Garuda, the mighty carrier of Lord Vishnu. To maintain peace, the serpents offered Garuda his share of food at regular intervals. But Kaliya, swollen with pride, began consuming the offerings himself. This was not merely an act of hunger. Kaliya’s action reflected his refusal to respect the order that protected his people. He believed that his strength and venom gave him the right to take what belonged to another. His arrogance eventually brought Garuda upon him. Garuda attacked Kaliya, striking him with his powerful wings. Wounded and defeated, Kaliya fled Ramaṇaka Island ...

 The Quiet Grace of Adivaraha: A Reflection on Divine Kindness and Sadhana ​ When we think of the Varaha Avatara, the mind often conjures images of fierce celestial battles. But when I sat down to paint Adivaraha for my Dashavatara series, I didn't want to capture the fury of battle. He can become fierce. But that fierceness is not the essence of the avatara.  ​I wanted to capture His quiet, unshakeable calm. ​I wanted to paint the serene face of a protector who lifts everything that exists with absolute grace. All because the higher jeevas, endowed with bodies, sadhana-sharira, longed for a realm to perform sadhana and ultimately attain moksha. ​This is the true, overwhelming kindness of the Supreme Lord. He doesn't just grant us our spiritual journey. He builds and sustains the very floor beneath our feet so that we might walk toward Him. ​The Weightless Universe and the Primordial darkness ​In this composition, the backdrop is a deep, swirling darkness. The Lakshmyatmaka Ta...

When I first set out on my Dashavatara series, I assumed the process would be straightforward. Pick pivotal moments from my existing research and translate them to canvas. ​My initial 2020 study of Narasimha, an oil on primed paper, felt obvious at the time. My focus was purely on raw, fiery rage. I wanted a lion’s face consumed by flame with Prahlada standing untouched in the corner. ​However, after finishing the Varaha Avatara and delving deeper into the Bhagavata Purana alongside Sri Madhvacharya’s Srimad Ananda Tirtha Bhagavata Tatparya Nirnaya, my perspective shifted completely. I realized I had to revisit the painting. ​The fire of Narasimha was never aimless fury. It was a metaphorical furnace meant solely to burn away Hiranyakashipu's ego and Adharma. Where the world saw an unnatural, terrifying, and a violent form, Prahlada saw a mother. ​Just like a mother who chastises her child out of intense love, giving him chances to rectify his ways before taking firm action, the Lo...

Vasudeva’s Procession Through the Yamuna We often imagine the journey of Vasudeva from Mathura to Gokula as the journey of hardships, carrying a newborn child at night through a raging river in a terrible storm, but when I came across Sri Vadiraja Tirtha’s description of this journey in Rukmiṇisha Vijaya, I began to see it in a new light. This was not a journey of an escape. It was a procession. On that dark Ashtami night, the Supreme Lord appeared as a tiny newborn child. "Tam adbhutaṁ bālakam ambujekṣaṇam!" Vasudeva placed Him in a wicker basket and set out towards Gokula. As I imagined that journey through Vadiraja’s eyes, the entire universe seemed to become part of His procession. Shesha spread his thousands of hoods above Krishna like a royal umbrella - Chatra seva. Vayu moved gently around Him, performing Chamara seva. The Gandharvas sang and played divine music. The Apsaras danced. Celestial flowers showered from above. Even the thunderstorm seemed to become part of t...

This is a painting I completed recently and I am so excited to finally share it with you, along with the journey of how it came to be. This piece is incredibly personal and technically challenging, pushing me far out of my artistic comfort zone. ​The subject is Draupadi , one of the most powerful figures in the Mahabharata, but I wanted to paint a specific, liminal moment: her birth from the sacred yagña fire. ​The Vision: Innocence and Intelligence ​According to scripture, Draupadi did not enter this world as a baby; she emerged as a full-grown young woman. This is what compelled me to paint this exact scene. It’s a moment of profound in-between. I chose this moment because it has a raw innocence of a child but the intelligence and knowledge of a woman. ​You can see that liminal state in her expression. She looks forward with intense energy, ready to fulfill her destiny. As a mother, I couldn't help but see reflections of my own teenage daughter in that face. Especially in those ...

Yajñaseni Draupadi - Progress The second pass of Yajñaseni has been less about adding detail and more about discovering relationships between flame and form, darkness and light, coolness and warmth, innocence and inner power. The first stage of the painting was still very much immersed in darkness. Draupadi seemed to exist almost within the fire rather than apart from it. Her form was there, but it was deliberately indistinct, allowing the surrounding blue, violet and earthy tones to establish the atmosphere before the figure itself became fully visible. As the second pass progressed, I began moving away from simply describing fire and started trying to create the feeling of a divine blue radiance from which Draupadi emerges. Less like something burning around her and more like the sacred energy through which she has entered the world. At the same time, Draupadi's face began to take shape. I wanted her to retain a certain youthfulness and innocence, while carrying a quiet intellige...

The Cosmic Boar: Unveiling Varaha from the Dashavatara Series The Dashavatara series continues, and this time, we are diving deep into the cosmic ocean with Varaha, the mighty third avatar of Lord Vishnu. When conceptualizing this piece, I wanted to capture more than just the traditional imagery of the boar rescuing the earth. I wanted to convey the immense, universe-spanning scale of the Lord Himself. ​In the final piece, Varaha’s profile anchors the canvas. I focused heavily on the rugged, earth-toned texture of the skin and the sharp, imposing sweep of the tusk. The true focal point, however, is the eye which is strikingly human, serene yet deeply intense. It gazes out against the chaotic beauty of a swirling, blue and purple vortex.  ​Behind the Brush: From Sketch to Cosmos ​Building this piece required careful layering to achieve the necessary depth. I’ve included some process photos below so you can see how the background galaxy evolved from flat, structural color blocks into...

 Harapanahalli Bheemavva Some paintings begin with a story. Others begin with a face. When I decided to paint Harapanahalli Bheemavva, I wanted to capture something of the quiet strength associated with her life and devotion. Rather than depicting her as an elaborate saintly figure, I chose to paint a simple portrait. A woman with a sense of stillness and contemplation. This painting was done on a 12 × 16 inch canvas board. Building the portrait I began the painting with a fairly limited palette of burnt umber, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and yellow ochre. These four colors formed the foundation of the skin, hair and clothing, allowing me to establish the values and overall warmth of the portrait before introducing stronger colors. Once the first layers were established, I glazed the painting with transparent red oxide and indanthrone blue. The transparent red oxide brought warmth and depth into the earth colors, while indanthrone blue helped create the cooler passages and deepe...

Natural pure pigment - Hand Mulled Oil Paint Discovering a Handmade Earth Red When I began work on Matsya, the first painting in my Dashavatara series, I found myself searching for a particular quality in the skin tones. I wanted warmth, depth, and a sense of life beneath the surface. My initial attempts using commercial colors, including mixes based on vermilion hue, did not quite produce the effect I was looking for. That search led me in an unexpected direction. I ordered a few natural earth pigments and began experimenting with hand-mulling my own oil paint. Among them was an earthy red pigment that immediately caught my attention. After mulling it into oil and testing it in my paintings, I discovered a quality I had been struggling to achieve with tube paints. Hand mulled pure pigment paints, earth red and warm yellow.  The color produces a remarkable warmth in skin tones. It seems to create the impression of blood glowing beneath the skin without requiring additional glazing....

Oil Painting Narrative: How Contrast Rescued My Garuda and Kaliya Painting Garuda vs Kaliya This painting sat on my easel for months because something about it never felt right. The composition worked, but the mood didn't. When I finally returned to it with fresh eyes, I realized that the problem wasn't the drawing. It was the way the painting was communicating. A few carefully planned changes completely transformed its energy. The Problem Halfway through the painting, I hit a wall. Everything looked flat. Nothing felt electric. The air wasn't charged with the anticipation of battle between Garuda and Kāliya . Instead of tension and drama, the painting simply looked... meh. Painting looked like this halfway through.  The Rescue Before touching the brush, I asked myself a simple question. Why isn't this working? The answer came down to two things- Colour and contrast  - The background and the subjects were too similar in value and intensity, causing everything to merge ...

 Before and After Glazing – An Old Master's Secret One of the most fascinating stages of an oil painting is glazing. These two images show the painting before and after several transparent glaze layers. At first glance, the difference may seem subtle, but glazing transforms a painting in ways that are difficult to achieve by simply mixing colours opaquely. The technique has a long and distinguished history. During the Renaissance, many of the great masters built their paintings in stages, allowing each layer to dry before applying thin, transparent films of colour over the surface. Artists such as Jan van Eyck, Titian, and later Rembrandt used glazing to create extraordinary depth, luminosity, and richness that became hallmarks of classical oil painting. The science behind it is just as fascinating as the history. Opaque paint reflects most of the light directly from its surface. Transparent pigments behave differently. Light passes through the transparent glaze, reflects from the ...

  The Research - When I began reading about the Kurma Avatara, I realized a few things. But what struck me most was that Kurma avatara is not merely about strength. It is about divine support. The Lord does not simply intervene once and leave. He sustains every step of the journey, often in ways that remain unnoticed. While thinking about the composition, I considered including the devas, the asuras, Vasuki, and the churning itself. But I realized that if I painted every element of the story, the viewer's attention would be divided among the many events taking place. I wanted the painting to speak about something quieter and more fundamental. Throughout the manthana, the Lord was the unseen stability behind every action. He upheld the mountain, strengthened those who churned, sustained Vasuki, and ensured that the divine purpose continued uninterrupted. That idea became the foundation of this painting. So I deliberately removed everything except Him. The absence of the devas and a...

Kurma Avatara – The Story The story of Kurma avatara begins even before the churning of the ocean. A great war had broken out between the devas and the asuras. The devas fought valiantly, but there was one overwhelming advantage on the side of the asuras. Their guru, Shukracharya, possessed a divine science by which even slain asuras could be brought back to life. No matter how many battles the devas won, the asuras returned again and again. Unable to overcome this, the devas approached Lord Shri Hari and sought His guidance. The Lord advised them to make peace with the asuras temporarily and work together to churn the Kshira Sagara, the Ocean of Milk. Hidden within it was amrita, the nectar of immortality. Once the devas obtained the amrita, they would no longer be vulnerable in battle. Following His instructions, the devas and the asuras joined forces. Lord Shri Hari Himself accompanied them. Mount Mandara was chosen as the churning rod, and Vasuki, the king of serpents, became the c...

The transformation of cloth is one of my favourite stages in oil painting. The image on the left is the end of my second pass, where I focus entirely on building the structure. At this stage, I'm not chasing rich colours. Instead, I'm concerned with the folds, the rhythm of the fabric, the direction of the light and the overall form. Once that foundation is in place, the magic begins. The image on the right shows the same cloth brought to life with transparent layers of Transparent Red Iron Oxide by M. Graham & Co. This remarkable pigment allows the underlying structure to remain visible while bathing the fabric in a warm, luminous glow that opaque paint simply cannot achieve. A special thank you to my wonderful sister-in-law, who lovingly brought this tube all the way from the USA for me. Every time I use it, I'm reminded that art is often created not only with brushes and pigments, but also with the love and encouragement of family. ❤️ For the deepest shad...