An old house sketch with ball point pen

© Shubhankar  Adhikari 

 Last week when I visited Taki, the heritage town of Bengal ,I noticed this beautiful  house . I have made this sketch work last week. In my previous blog post  I have alreadty mentioned about  Taki in short. In Taki I have found many old structures like this  . I have a plan to do a painting series later on.

An artful tour to Taki - a Heritage Town

© Shubhankar  Adhikari

watercolour painting  on paper ( 11" x 15")

Taki is an extremely peaceful place for plein air painting .Last week I visited Taki to do some plein air painting.
I boarded the Hasnabad Local Train from Sealdah Station,(Kolkata ) to reach Taki Road Station.From Taki Road station I took a cycle-van to arrive at the Zamindar Bari (Palatial building ) on the banks of River Ichamoti in 10 minutes. Two-third of the Zamindar Bari (Palatial building ) property has been engulfed by the river Ichamoti,still this ( Zamindar Bari -Palatial building ) is one of the main attraction here.These Zamindars ruled from the time of Mughals and served till the time of British rules. It is quite painful to see the Zamindar Baris(Palatial buildings ) are now in dilpidated state. This historical Zamindar Bari(Palatial building ) as a witness, has lot more to say, if we all are willing to listen it.

Taki is a heritage town and also the gateway to Sunderban ( Bay of Bengal ). It is situated by the bank of beautiful river Ichamoti. Bangladesh is on the other bank of the river Ichamoti. Taki Municipality is  one of the oldest municipalities in India established in1869. Taki Gov’t High School is more than 250 years old.

A boat ride on the waters of Ichamoti is an activity which I surely cannot miss for speed sketching. I sketched the house of the the fishermen, their boats ,trees near  the shore, boats dancing in the high tide. The murmuring sound of the water and a boatman singing some folk tune enchanted my creative spirit. I spent a lovely day observing, painting,sketching  a variety of birds, trees, sailing boats,motor boats etc.

After completion of my fine art related job wholeday long , I enjoyed rolls, ghugnis ,sweets and tea on the shores of Ichamoti in the evening . It was quite relaxing. As an avid fan of prawn I also tried some prawn items here. Taki is also well known for prawn.

While returning home ,I noticed this beautiful old structure near Taki Municipality. I decided that I will paint it very soon. Yesterday I have made it. In this painting I have applied scarlet lake, lemon yellow,prussian blue,burnt sienna,hooker’s green,and payne’s grey.