Guidance on Painting

My dear Gracious Mother,

After a long time I have done this flower which you gave this morning.

 

It is very well done.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

How do you find the flower today?

 

It is well done.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

Today I have not drawn a flower, instead I have drawn this picture. Will it do?

 

It is very good indeed.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

How do you find the flowers today? Will they be useful to you? These flowers are done for you.

Page-61

---

They are very well done and will certainly be of use to Mother; Mother will be glad to have any more you can do like that.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

I have drawn this painting directly from nature.

Please show me the defects in this.

 

It is very well done this time. No defects.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

Today I tried to draw the sky. How do you find it?

 

The colours of the sky are pretty, but the sky is vague, indefinite.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

After seeing one picture, I have done a landscape with trees and birds. I have drawn these birds without seeing them anywhere and added something of my own from my imagination. How is it done?

Page-62

---

The tree and the birds are good.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

Today I have drawn on the cover horizontally although it is vertical. Can I do like this? How is the tree?

 

The tree is well done.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

I have copied this peacock from the cover of the book "Meghdoot".

 

It is very pretty.

Blessings.

THE MOTHER

 

Mother,

Out of the pictures given to Champaklal I have drawn one which I found quite easy and today I am sending it to you. How do you find it?

 

It is very well done.

SRI AUROBINDO

Page-63

---

Mother,

I have drawn this picture from the one you gave me. How do you find it?

 

It is good.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

I have made this design on the plain cover. I have made it out of some waste colour. How is it?

 

It is very pretty.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

Here I am sending the books which I received from Mahesh. One is for Champaklal.

 

The book on oil painting contains some good information about the nature of colours.

 

THE MOTHER

 

Mother,

Here are some black and white pictures discarded by Champaklal because they got spoiled. The two coloured ones are done by me.

Page-64

---

The flowers are good, but the black and white sketches are not successful.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

Please guide me so that I may improve my paintings.

 

What Mother wants to know is whether you want flowers? Landscapes? Black and white? Colours?

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

Today I have done another lotus bud.

 

It is very pretty.

 

I want something for copying.

 

What kind of thing do you want? With my blessings.

THE MOTHER

 

Mother,

Today also I have done on my own, as I had nothing to copy from.

Page-65

---

Mother has given some pictures (Japanese paintings) to Champaklal. You can try those if he has finished.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Mother,

Today I have drawn this picture from my own imagination. I do not know how to draw a road. I have not drawn well.

 

It is because you do not know perspective and the painting of a road depends on that. You will have to learn perspective.

 

Kamala,

I have accepted your beautiful painting box and I will make use of it. But truly I have no use for this drawing paper. So it is better if you take it back and use it for making your paintings.

 

Mother,

I had drawn two mangoes on this paper but they did not come out well, so I tried it second time.

How do you find the second attempt?

Page-66

---

Fairly good.

 

Mother,

1 try to put light and shade in my painting but I do not know where to put them.

 

You must look at the flower and where you see it on the flower, put it on the painting.

 

Mother,

I have drawn this figure. How do you find it? I have copied it.

 

It is well done.

 

Mother,

This drawing is copied from a Japanese picture. After finishing the picture, when I looked at it, I was astonished at how I could do it.

I never did any drawing in my school days, I even used to go away home every time there was a drawing class. But here, with Thy Grace how much I can do!

I remember a sloka which my father used to

Page-67

---

chant when I was young. The meaning of this sloka is as follows:

Mother, with Thy Grace or with Thy Touch, the blind can see and the lame can cross the mountain.

How do you find the drawing today?

 

It is really well done. Mother finds you are making good progress.

 

Mother,

The path in this painting which I have drawn, is it properly done? I could not draw the garden properly. Mother, what should I do to learn perspective? I am sending another painting with this.

 

You must learn about the perspective.

No. See carefully what the Mother has done - She will send this one arranged.

 

Mother,

Is the road properly done?

 

It is much better this time.

Page-68

---

Mother,

How do you find the picture drawn today?

 

It is just a little heavy this time.

 

Mother,

I have done a landscape for the first time. How do you find it?

 

It shows much improvement and progress.

 

Mother,

Today I have drawn a bird sitting on the branch of a tree. It is done from some other picture, though not copied exactly. Is the moon rightly drawn? The colours of the bird and the tree are my selection.

Are they all right?

 

The moon and the small branches and the leaves are good. The bird and its colours are rather too fanciful.

Page-69

---

Dear Mummy,

This picture I have done without anybody's help. 1 pray Mummy for some instructions. At the lotus feet of my Mummy.

 

Difficult to explain in writing - if you come to-morrow (Thursday) at about 1.30 p.m. I shall explain the things to you.

Blessings.

THE MOTHER

 

Gracious Mother,

This lotus I have done from nature.

 

It is quite good.

 

Mother,

I want to draw portraits. Today I have drawn the legs from some book directly with a brush without using a pencil.

Should I draw with a pencil first?

May I draw from a book?

Should I learn to do the portraits or continue to draw the flowers? Please guide me.

 

You can try the human figure but it is better to learn to draw it first, before painting. You can draw from the

Page-70

---

books. Until you have tried we cannot say whether you have a disposition for the human figure.

SRI AUROBINDO

 

The paintings are good.

Love and blessings.

Page-71

---

A list of the paintings done during 1933 to 1938 by Kamala is given below. The names of the flowers in the paintings refer to the significances as given by the Mother to those flowers.

 

Page-72

---

Page-73

---