Painting as Sadhana

Krishnalal as an art teacher

Krishnalal had taught at two schools at Ahmedabad after coming back from Baroda in 1927; and after returning from Shantiniketan, in a college for women. But there was not sufficient freedom for him either to impart what he had acquired or to grow in the direction he wanted. That was when he was turned towards Sri Aurobindo and this brought him to the greatest Artist he could aspire for. In the Ashram, he taught art to many. Here are some relevant portions from his correspondence about his work of teaching art:

[undated]

I have begun the classes…. Should I give them suggestions and make corrections.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes—since they have gone to you they are progressing.

[3.10.33]

Mother: Krishnalal, I find that Champaklal is progressing very much since you are teaching him. He would like to have a lesson every day. Can you do it?

[20.11.33]

…I had not the least intention of offending A or stopping him from the class. Was I wrong in insisting on his bringing some work for execution in the class for he did not bring any since last four classes?

Mother: No, you were not wrong.

[30.12.33]

I feel a kind of movement going on in my inner being…. I keep aspiration for the divine Truth to manifest through my art. When such movement is going on I see hazy forms in a variety of colours coming down but it is disturbed by some mental movement.

Sri Aurobindo: Mother is constantly putting you in relation with a world of true harmony and it is that that you feel trying to come down….

[24.5.35]

Mother will kindly suggest as to how I shall give A painting lessons.

Sri Aurobindo: She can do what you give her at home and show you. But it is better if from time to time you show her how things are to be done.

[7.10.35]

…In this way to push their idea of painting—is it good? They were not capable of starting or finishing such a picture. Mother will let me know if such a trial comes from them, should I push it up and help them as I did this time?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, certainly—it is sure to help them very much.

[10.1.36]

Sri Aurobindo: What you write about the expression of beauty through painting and the limitations of the work as yet done here, is quite accurate. The painters here have capacity and disposition, but as yet the work done ranks more as studies and sketches, some well done, some less well than as great or finished art. What they need is not to be easily satisfied because they have put their ideas or imaginations in colour or because they have done some good work, but always to see what has not been yet achieved and train the vision and executive power till they have reached a truly high power of themselves.

[1937-38]

Herewith, I send Kamala's drawing book for you to see. I would like to know how you find her work.

Sri Aurobindo: Mother finds that she is doing very good studies.

*

[Two of his students speak about Krishnalal]

Kiran Mehra on her teacher:

I started learning from "Monsieur" (as I always called him) from 1962 end at the Delafon Studio. Working with him was quite different from working with other teachers. He never taught methodically. He would just give suggestions and leave it to the student to develop the suggestion. He encouraged me a lot to work in this way. He would always say, "Just go on drawing and painting whatever is there in front of you. Your subjects will talk to you." He did not have many students as such; probably because he never gave any "practical" instructions taking us "step by step" into the world of Art. And that put off most people. He wanted the things latent in each artist to blossom out by themselves. He never let us copy. "Do from Nature"—that was his motto, an echo from his teacher, Nandalal Bose. Identify yourself with your subject. He never interfered while we worked. He would come and stand next to me and watch while I worked and let me go on without a word. Only after I had finished would he give his views and opinions—commend or criticise, as the case would be. To teach me portrait painting, he himself would become the model. He has given me many sittings and I have sketched and painted him in many poses and from many angles.

Sunayana Panda on working with Krishnalal:

In March 1982 Krishnalal asked me to help him to finish the Golconde mural. As I had been his student he knew that I had a basic understanding of painting and that he could guide me. Ideally he had wanted many artists to work together on the mural, but somehow this was not practically possible. After working on it for one year he realised that it was not going to be so easy for him to do everything alone. He was already in his late seventies and his eyes were quite weak, so he could not work for long stretches. Having started this project of so huge a proportion, he had to now complete it, in whatever way possible. We know that there is no such thing as chance, but the way things happened, it was clearly one of those instances when the Mother gets her work done in her own inscrutable ways. On the same day, at the same time, both Krishnalal and I were on our way to see Ravindra-ji. I wanted him to give me some work other than what I had been doing and Krishnalal wanted to request him to give him a full-time worker for the Art Gallery who could also be an assistant to him for this specific work. We met at the entrance of the Ashram Main Building and realised that we had both found what we were looking for. Ravindra-ji agreed to both our requests and I started work the following week. At first I thought that I was going to work with him but I soon realised that I was going to learn from him. It was like going back to school because every day there was a new lesson to learn, a new aspect of painting that I had to master. More important than that was all that I heard from him about the early days of the Ashram and how the Mother guided the sadhaks in their inner work. Just being in his presence was enough to learn how to serve the Mother. On the first day when I went to work at the Art Gallery he took me to the place where there was a message of the Mother which was framed and kept on a table. It said "On the physical plane it is in Beauty that the Divine expresses Himself." "Before you start working here," he told me, "I must initiate you." Pointing to the framed message he asked me to think over the meaning of that sentence. "It means…." I started saying, but he cut me short and asked me to think about the real meaning for an entire day. I thought for a whole day about this idea and turned it round and round in my mind. The next day I told him what I had understood. "I think it means that every time we see beauty we are actually looking at the Divine, or at least at one of his faces." He seemed pleased with that. He said, "I am happy that you found that answer. We always think that the Divine is hidden from us and that we can only see him if we are spiritually very advanced. The truth is we can see him whenever we want to see him because he is making himself visible at every moment. If you look for Beauty you will find the Divine in the physical world." The initiation was over and after this he took me to that part of the Art Gallery which was the studio.

We worked for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon every day. Very often he painted only in the morning so that his eyes would not be strained. I sat on the floor and painted the flowers while he stood and did the portraits. My work was also to prepare the colours for him. I had to mix a little water with all the main colours and keep them in small jars before he started working. The acrylic paints had come from Holland and if they were not mixed with water regularly they tended to dry up in the heat of Pondicherry. I also had to clean the palettes and brushes when we had finished working.

It often struck me that this is how the Old Masters of Europe worked. They did the main work while their apprentices did all the minor details and helped the artist in general. When I would go to get a bowl of clean water or wash his brushes I always felt that I was the apprentice of a Master, and was participating in the very important work of helping him finish his masterpiece.

The great paintings of European Art were often ordered and commissioned by royalty. In our story too there was a queen. Every two or three months Krishnalal would invite Mona who was in charge of Golconde to come and see our progress. A couple of days before Mona's visit we would start tidying the already very tidy studio. As we hurried to put away the odd art book or the unused brushes we would whisper "Mona is coming, Mona is coming!" It was as if we were saying "The queen is coming, the queen is coming!" Mona, of course, was always happy to see that some parts of the painting were more complete than before. Of all her visits the one which we remembered the most was when she saw that we had put a bunch of daffodils right at the centre of the bottom part of the painting. She at once exclaimed: "Krishnalal, I am so glad to see the daffodils which represent my beloved England. I have to thank you for including them in this beautiful painting."

Watching him paint was a joy. He was so deeply concentrated that nothing could distract him. The Art Gallery was a building whose entire roof was made of asbestos sheets and the sides were made of large glass panes. In the afternoon the whole studio became a furnace. Krishnalal would be covered in sweat but he would be working very carefully on his portraits because they had to resemble the people he wanted to portray. Whenever I was going to start a new flower he would ask me to go and observe it in nature. It was common for him to come back from the Ashram and say, "Go and see the pot of 'New Creation' near the Samadhi" or, "Have you noticed the 'Boldness' near the reading room?" After working with him for two years I understood that he had a "third eye" and that was his power of observation. In a glance he saw much more than what a common man could see and this is what made his paintings so alive.

Sometimes in the afternoons, when we used to finish working early, we would sit and talk about the Mother. One afternoon when he was about to paint the figure of the Mother on the mural I said that the position in which he had drawn her sitting seemed a bit strange to me. Krishnalal then explained to me that in the 1930s the Mother used to sit on a low chair and give blessings. Apparently she used to sit in that position, with only one foot visible so that people could touch it and do their pranams. Sometimes he would tell me what the Mother had said about art. He would often mention that the Mother had more than once said that the artist's hand could develop a consciousness of its own, independent of the general consciousness of the artist, just as musicians have a special consciousness in their hands. Somehow, in conversation or in thought, the Mother was always there.

One morning, he came to paint a little later than usual, after finishing some other work. I had already started my own work and the whole studio was in a mess. All the brushes were scattered here and there, the little pots in which we kept the colours were not arranged on the table, some were on the floor. He looked at me questioningly, as if to say, "What is all this?"

"I have heard," I said, "that Raphael, the great artist, lived in utter disorder. In fact, I have read that all the Old Masters were messy." I thought I had given a very valid justification for my not having put things in their place. I thought he would mull over my unusual announcement. But he did not even pause for a second.

"Yes," he said calmly, "it may be true. But if you are trying to say that because they lived in disorder that is why they were great artists then you are totally wrong. A lot of people in the world live in disorder but they are not all artists. Raphael was indeed a great artist but he did not have the good fortune you and I have of knowing what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have said about human nature. So, instead of following the examples of the Old Masters' disorderly lives, let us concentrate on what the Mother has said about always seeking beauty and harmony around us. Our aim is to go beyond creating a great painting; our aim is to make all the different parts of our being as perfect as possible. And now, you will please put back all the paint jars that we are not using."

That afternoon, as we sat at our little table, we spoke about the Old Masters. Krishnalal then told me that artists, whatever may be their field, open their vital being to many different influences. "The artist lives in his vital, and that is the danger," he said, "because when he opens himself, sometimes a lot of negative forces enter into his being. Most people are not conscious enough to take only the higher things. That is why many great artists used to lead lives where often there were excesses." Around April 1984 we started putting the final touches to the mural, after which all the panels were dismantled and taken to Golconde. After they were installed on the wall, we had to once again touch them up. When the work was over, a coat of special varnish was applied. This turned out to be a most unfortunate decision. Even though the colours were of very good quality, and could withstand changes in temperature, the varnish was not meant to be applied on a work of art. It was the kind of varnish which was then the latest product for finishing the polish on furniture. Being in a partially covered area, a part of the mural is exposed to sunlight and splashes of water in case of rain. In the last twenty years the varnish has started cracking all over but even more on the exposed side of the picture, and as it flakes off it pulls out bits of the paint along with it. Efforts are now being made to stop this deterioration.

When the mural was completed, Krishnalal heaved a sigh of relief, as we had managed to come to the end in spite of many obstacles. It had taken much longer than he had expected, but at least he had realised a long-cherished dream. Something which had been planned in the mid-40s was completed in the mid-80s, all because he had not given up hope. He believed that a work that had been given to him by the Mother had to be completed, even if it took him several decades.

(Reproduced from The Golden Chain, May 2005, pp. 29-32)

*

Krishnalal on how to appreciate the Golconde mural:

Now that the big mural has been installed at Golconde, several persons come to me and praise it. But what most of them appreciate is the size of the picture and the many portraits in it. These points are so very superficial that, in a sense, it pains me. Hence I feel it proper to say something on how best to see the picture.

This painting depicts The Mother's vision which She had wanted to have done and placed at Golconde. It has not at all been done to show the portrait of this person or that person. The picture must be seen as a whole, from top to bottom and from side to side. The main thing, of course, is The Mother's figure. Look how large it is! Vast as Her Consciousness. Her head is touching the sky which is aglow with the New Light which Sri Aurobindo brought down on earth. She is seated in front of the sea which symbolises vastness. Her face is half veiled just as Her real and true personality was hidden from the ordinary sight and understanding. Some parts of Her body which are visible radiate an aura which is so subtle! Her hands are raised to bless all which is a fact so well known to all of us.

It is the presence of such a Supreme personality and Her Blessings that attract and draw humans from all parts of the world to Her. These people (some of whom seem to be known to us) represent some of those who were in Her personal service and were happy to offer to Her whatever they had.

Was it only the human beings who were attracted to Her? Look at the whole world of Nature, the birds, animals, plants, flowers. They are all turned towards Her; see their trust and faith in Her. Does one not feel a happy eagerness in them too? What is that vast sea doing? Have you marked the seat of The Mother? The roses and the tuberoses, what do they signify? There are the two plants and the two creepers at either end of the picture. Their significances are also known to us. They are in full bloom. Why?

If one understands all these things with one's heart one will not go on asking questions. But, on the other hand, one will be absorbed in the atmosphere of the New Light and of calm happiness. One will meditate rather than ask questions, unnecessary questions.

I have done this picture—it is my joy. But not because I have done a "Big painting", but because I have been able to fulfil a wish of The Mother, at least, to some extent because I feel that it is not done so well and is not as perfect as it should be and for this I am a bit sorry. The colours used are the acrylic paints which are very good for a painting like this but they were quite new to me so I had to adjust myself to them and to develop a new technique. The colours dry very fast, even more so in our studio which is very hot. At the beginning there was no big easel for this large painting and so I had to spread the separate boards on the floor and paint on them. Quite a new experience for me to work flat on the floor. But it was done somehow and now the picture is up at Golconde and The Mother's vision has been expressed and it is there for all to see.