We have always loved our valued member Prenita Dutt for her beautiful paintings, drawings, and poetry and would like to congratulate her as Ruskin Bond’s latest book ‘While the Birds still Sing’ has been beautifully illustrated by her.
Prenita says :
There is something very exciting about reading a manuscript for the first time. It presents a world of creative opportunities. Imagination gets energized and the sketchbook fills up fast with possible options for illustrating them. It is an exciting place to be in.
Mr. Bond’s book -While The Birds Still Sing – A Life in Nature was no different. Every page was a veritable world within words and I loved reading it. Putting it down in line and color was even better. It seemed like I was traveling along with him down mountain paths, observing wildflowers and birds, noting the changing seasons and the beauty they brought to the hills.
My way of approaching the illustrations for this book was to first understand the flow of the chapters and to make notations on the margins. I worked with two photocopies of the manuscript for this purpose, using color pencils to give these tiny sketches a lively appearance and sort out my own thinking as well.
Illustrating for ‘While the Birds still Sing’ gave me a wonderful opportunity to understand and appreciate the effort every individual puts into making a book.
Image Credit: Upasna Sahney
Prenita is a self-taught artist with a degree in Psychology from Delhi University. She had her first solo show in 2005. Her paintings have been exhibited across numerous states in India and they adorn the homes of art collectors and art lovers across the world.
Her art is a joyous celebration of nature and the simple pleasures of life they bring. Her explorations with colours, textures and in particular, sharing this skill set with diverse groups of people, is what brings her true joy.
She takes the viewer into landscapes of her imagination, many of which are reimagined spaces of her childhood when nature grew with joyous abandon and fireflies lit the sky. At the same time, quick line drawings with pen and watercolour bring her back to the present moment as she fills up journal pages with sketches and musings of subjects that surround her.
The colour and spontaneity in her art are inspired a lot by the work she has done over the last ten years as an art facilitator and resource person for adults with disabilities. Her unique style and vibrancy of watercolours gave her the prestigious opportunity to illustrate ‘While the Birds Still Sing’ a book by world-renowned author, Ruskin Bond.
In addition, she has compiled a journal titled “Notes from my Garden” that hold many of her sketches and writings. She recently finished illustrating a short story co-authored by UK based professionals working in the field of health and mindfulness for children.
