Tea Art
14th - 16th May 2010 - The Emperor`s Lounge, The Taj Mahal Hotel, Mansingh Road, New Delhi, India
At the Opening...
The Artist in front of the painting Chai, desi style- acrylic on canvas- 82" x 80"
'High-Tea' and Art!! - artwork at display at the show in Emperors' Lounge
'Where Streets Have No Name'
Salaam Balak Trust Exhibition
At the Show at Visual Arts Gallery, Habitat Centre, Lodi Estate, New Delhi - 29th April 2010
How it all began...
"On 1st April, 2010, with Paints and Canvas, I went over to the Salaam Balak Trust Centre, Pahad Ganj, New Delhi.
THE PROJECT - to work on a Painting along with the Street Children now at the Shelter. Here is how the day went...
I asked them to make their favourite thing. Something that they liked the most. Be it a thing or an activity. And before I could prompt them further, they were at work!! Here are the young artists starting the work..
YA 1 (young artist) starts making 'Krishan ji' (lord Krishna).
YA 2 & 3 (young artist) start making the Taj Mahal!
YA 4 (and he really had a good steady hand) makes a beautiful landscape with park/garden and a centre stage, and rolling hills in the background.
YA 5 starts to make a house, with interesting things in the front garden of the house - a helicopter, a rocket on the launching pad and curiously, a magic lamp, the kind from the Alladin stories!!
YA 6 starts making his favourite too... guess what that round thing is? Its a Pizza!! 
all engrossed in work. Krishan Ji almost completed and so is the lovely landscape.
Here is where I decide to join in with my favourite thing.. Tea!
8 Young Artists helped make a 71" x 44.5" canvas. Here we all are taking a break.
Time to pack up. They gathered the paints quickly... and packed all the stuff nicely in a bag. Then we all had chocolate and said good bye.
Back in my studio, I completed the canvas. Added colour which bound 9 different areas making it one whole painting. Almost done..
The Tree of Life - 71" x 44.5"
(all proceeds from this acrylic on canvas go to the Salaam Balak Trust)
Thank you for sharing this experience along with me.
RECENT SHOW
Ode to Tea
January 31– February 12th 2010
Opening Reception January 31st 1:00 - 3:00 P.m
Cedar Ridge Studio Gallery,
225 Confederation Drive, Scarborough, M1G 1B2, ON Canada
PAPER PLANES
SAVAC Juried Members' Exhibition, August 14–28 2009
Opening Reception August 15th 1:00 - 3:00 P.m
at- VMAC Gallery, 4th Floor, 401 Richmond Street West Toronto, ON M5V3A8
The War - 18"x24" Tehran Protests - 18"x24"
It is through the media that I get a sense of what is happening in the world. The images that I see in the newspapers and the television. Some disturbing, of man acting as a beast; others awe inspiring, of people struggling against great odds.
I try and put on paper what I see in this world through the media- The Israel - Palestine conflict… The War in Iraq …The Taliban problem…
And as I do this I realise that the conventional sources of information are becoming less important. There is a new channel of information, the internet, where the newsmakers who are the reporters. With the advent of Twitter, You tube, the whole blogging community, the whole dynamics of the news as it reaches us is changing.
The saying- 'if you are reading it, its history, not news', may not hold true anymore.
M.F. HUSAIN BUYS AN 'ANJUM'
The Sale of the Century! When the Maestro Himself bought my painting.
ART ON WHEELS
As a part of the Mosaic Festival 2008, Mississauga (Canada), a Transit bus was transform into a decadent piece of traditional South Asian art!
Anjum Siddiqui in front of the bus
In the lines of traditional Truck Art in South Asia, three artist, Anjum Siddiqui (India), Syed Iqbal (Bangladesh) and Salim Khan (Pakistan), painted the Missiassauga (Canada) Transit bus in kitsch colours.
Mike Hanson (Canada), did a sound installation inside the bus with conversations and bus noises recorded candidly by him aboard the bus.
Also inside the were photographs of decorative Trucks from Pakistan by Sohail Zuberi.
Anjum and Syed Iqbal (artist from Bangladesh) Buying Paints
Taj Mahal at the back!!
At the Gallery
24th February 2008
