Scenic Bengaluru by the grace of BBMP

Bangalore's street walls used to be the dirtiest of the lot with the film posters and non-filmy political graffiti causing eye sore and visual pollution.

Thanks to the move by the BBMP; Bangalore is on a beautifying spree by the replacement of all movie posters, under the guidance of BBMP Commissioner, Bharat Lal Meena.

Majority of the scenes depict scenes from our epics such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, sculptures and famous tourist destinations.

Few playgrounds are surrounded by the paintings of sport stars and sporting events.

Some of these paintings on the either side of the under bridges are so visually appealing that we tend to get distracted while driving past them.

A Government School compound after the beautification drive in Malleswaram.

First, the walls are painted with white background color to act as a base for the different colors to stay on them.

Light markings are done of the images with the use of charcoal by the artist before starting his depiction of scene.

If the wall is uneven, plastering is done and then painted with the white background color.

Small-time painters were given orders by the contractors to beautify the walls in each area.

Since enamel paint takes long time to dry, the whole process takes time for the completion of the wall painting, but the whole exercise is worth the wait.

Familiar Ajanta Elora figures take much space among the walls around the Bangalore City.

Flat colors being used after the charcoal markings.

After the thorough drying of these background colors, the paintings now concentrate on the finer aspects of detailing stage by stage.

A painter is allotted space for each painting and paid Rs 15/- per square feet after completion of the demarcated wall.

Huge spending has occurred for these beautification drive, I wish the BBMP could spare part of the funds for the betterment of the road condition in reducing the plight of the road users and the trauma of the back by the riders!!!

Annual Chitra Santhe 2009

Chitra Sante is an 'Art Market' in Kannada and an annual event organized by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath ever since 2003. Artists from all over India showcase their art works only for a day on the streets of this road-cum-gallery each year.

There were a total of nearly more than 1500 stalls, from budding students, homemakers, craftsman, artists, professionals turned artists and also professional artists in all age groups.

This year 2009, the gate of ChitraKalaParishad (CKP) was beautifully decorated as usual in the mood of Chitra Santhe, meaning 'market of the art.'


Lot of artists came from the belts of Bidar, Gulbarga, Hubli, Dharwad, Udupi etc.,



I found this artist master his art of creations using his nails on to the paper surface to give an etched look to it. The finish of the latter is for you to see below, 2 of his artworks.........



Apart from the usual bundle of paintings, this time lot of stalls featured photographs as 'art' and they were selling as well, few of them as low as Rs 100/- to Rs 1500/- each.




This student from abroad who studies in Chitrakala Parishat in her second year had good set of paintings and was exhibiting for the first time and was overjoyed of being here in the sale.



Portrait and cartoonists were found making merry on this wonderful day, here you find one lady Chetana B M getting her cartoon done. She visits this mela every year to look at the various choises.......


This 'sand art' was astounding to see. Fine powder of sand was stuck to the surface of a board in various forms to give an extraordinary effect to the texture of this artwork.


Ilyas Ahmed's scraptures were awestuck and were favorites with the children and the adults alike.


Video art was shown in this hall for the first time made by leading contemporary artists from India and were lapped up by the audiance.



It was in bad taste to see some of the artists here to reproduce few senior artists works in totality - one example was the dancers by the original artist Subrato Gangopadhyay from Kolkata.


It was nice to see this miniature set of wood blocks of size 1.5"x2.5" of leading Art Masters done with acrylics by an artist and were quoted at Rs 100/- each.