PORTRAIT(S)

The Mother gave her help and encouragement to a number of people in the Ashram who wished to draw and paint, both beginners and trained artists. The results were varied, often original and sometimes remarkable. For two or three aspiring artists she herself made sketches and suggested compositions. The Mother demonstrated the technique of oil to Sanjiban in the 1930s.

Below Sanjiban has recounted how the Mother introduced him to oil painting after he had made sufficient progress in painting with pastel colours:

I wanted to do oil painting. The colours and brushes were ordered from Calcutta and paid for by Mother. She asked me to meet her at 10.30 in the morning on Pavitra's verandah. She had an old piece of canvas ready and called Chinmoyee to pose for her. Then she showed me how to take out the colours and arrange them on the palette. She gave me a palette knife which she had used and asked me to keep it with me.

Then she painted Chinmoyee — only her face, forehead, hair and the background. While she painted she talked. "Do not put direct dark colours on the head," she said, "first put the facial colours and then the dark colours — this will give a better impression. If you put black directly, it will give the impression of a hole." Then she asked, "Do you know how to do the background?" She took another brush and did the background. "See, the head is not touching the background. There is space in between." Then she blended the edges of the hair with the background.