Kenistudio

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...

 Hanuman at Rishyamukha There are moments in a great story when almost nothing appears to be happening, and yet everything is about to change. This painting depicts Hanuman on Rishyamukha Mountain, during the period when Sugriva and his followers have been driven into exile. Hanuman sits among the rocky landscape overlooking the forest. Somewhere beyond this quiet scene, Rama and Lakshmana are approaching the mountain in search of Sita. Within moments, this encounter will change the course of the Ramayana. I was drawn to this particular moment because it is so different from the usual depictions of Hanuman. There is no dramatic leap, no battle, no mountain being carried, and no elaborate gesture of devotion. Instead, there is stillness. Hanuman simply waits.  I imagined him sitting on the rocks of Rishyamukha, surrounded by the vast landscape, with the evening light spreading across the mountains. The smallness of the figure against the landscape was important to me. It create...

Half-Face Portraiture: Capturing the Infinite in a Single Eye   When painting sacred figures, the conventional approach is to display the entire form. We want to show the full posture, the intricate jewelry, the surrounding landscape, and the complete facial expression to convey the magnitude of the infinite being. But sometimes, showing less actually reveals more. In this oil study of Shri Krishna, I decided to break away from traditional framing. I wanted to experiment with a tight, asymmetrical, close-crop composition, slicing the face directly down the center to focus entirely on a single side bringing the composition to a more modern type of depiction with stylized form.  The Power of the Half-Crop When you cut a portrait in half, you immediately disrupt how the viewer interacts with the canvas. Instead of their eyes wandering across the entire face, they are forced to stop and look deeply into a concentrated space. The Inward Gaze By painting Krishna with his eye gently ...

 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....