Payal aur Deepak – Bees Saal

Payal called to remind me of a kettle I had painted for her husband and her ten years ago. It was a commemorative piece to celebrate 10 years of their togetherness. Five while dating and five being married. She now wanted another piece that would celebrate 20 years of their being together. Of course, a lot has changed in ten years – for starters they now have a son.

She walked into my studio and saw a display of some metal thalis on the wall and asked if I could represent their story on thalis since they already had a kettle. So the work began on very short notice. I had a total of ten days to source, prime, paint, and lacquer the plates!! But I am happy to say I pulled it off 🙂

I went through my archives and realized I don’t have pictures of the kettle I painted for them but I will rectify that soon. For now, I leave you with images of the thalis I painted this past week. Everything thing written or illustrated means something to them. It was a challenge to just pull out these many as Payal had sent me over two A4 size sheets full of information on what they hold dear to them. It will likely not make sense to you all but…

The central thali is a portrait of Payal and Deepak. There is one of Deepak with his love for his hair and hairdryer. The one with the portrait of their son depicts his love for pizzas, football, music, and the fact that he is learning to play the guitar with his father. The reference to his feet is that he apparently cannot fall asleep till his father presses his feet. How long that will go on I don’t know. Kudos to Deepak. But this works as a timestamp for them now. The other plates depict their love and their ribbing each other and one entire plate is dedicated to their travels across the world – complete with their entire extended families!!