Well I’ve been a bit neglectful of sharing some of the things that captivated us while we were in India… we toured literally dozens of temples and tombs. The one I think we most amazed us were the Ranakpur Jain Temple, which had different carvings on over 1400 marble pillars, all unique. The marble ceiling carvings were my favourite though, as you look up and these perfect dials thirty or so feet above you while you find your way through a maze of pillars. It was overwhelming at times how much pattern & carving was everywhere… you almost get a bit desensitized to it. Here are a few of my favourites from all over India…

(Read on …)

The peafowl, I discovered while in India, is the most beloved of their beautiful birds. We saw dozens of them (peacocks are males, peahens are females) in the wild… roosting in the trees, running around in the brush. Once we saw a male ‘dancing’ with his tail feathers fanned out… and were told that is ‘very lucky.’

So when I was introduced to the Indian Miniature paintings, the first I looked for was artwork of peacocks. This painting is only 4×6 inches… the paints are vegetable based, similar to tempera. The detail they put into these miniatures is incredible.

This piece of art was from a book, there is script on the back of the illustration, all hand painted text. We bought one more, which I’ll post in a couple days!

I’m back from my 15 day trip to India with my husband… so forgive me for the trickling posts recently! I’ll make up for it in the coming week with lots of great inspiration from Indian artwork, fabrics & architecture!