I've been thinking of doing an abstract Ganesha for quite some time; I kept conjuring up all sorts of images in my mind, but nothing really excited me enough to actually put it on a canvas. And then, I got the news of a death.. on twitter.. a young person, whom I didn't know personally - in fact, had had a bad experience with him in a twitter interaction, after which I stopped interacting with him totally. But his death did affect me somewhere inside, for he had tried to get back in touch with me on twitter, but I didn't have it in my heart to forgive him. That, and thoughts of the mysteries of existence - life and death - this dance in which we are all caught, kept churning in my mind and suddenly this dark Ganesha appeared in my mind's eye.

It still needs work, for which I will have to wait for the paint to dry. Another new aspect of this painting is that this is the first time I've used a plywood board as the support, or base. Seriously thinking of switching to this, since ready made stretched canvas is way too expensive for my daily painting meanderings. I had this piece lying around in my verandah, gathering dust and rain. I dusted it off, put two coats of white acrylic paint on it, and it was ready to use. I liked the experience of painting on it, so shall buy myself a sheet or two of plywood boards, cut them to the sizes I need, and paint on them henceforth.

Another thing I've been thinking about is to switch from oil to acrylics. Oil is just too expensive and takes ages to dry. Acrylic, apart from being cheaper, dries faster and so will help me to work on various layers faster. Only problem will be to get used to its fast drying properties, especially after the languorous luxury of oils, which give you time to think and change stuff even while wet. Anyway, I must try out acrylics, at least to experience the painting process with it.