Rhapsodies

I’ve done this sketch before. In fact I’ve done it several times. And why not it’s one of the nicest and most challenging pieces in the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s collection of Indian sculpture. One of the things I like best about the Indian sculpture room along of course with it’s spectacular selection of Greco-Buddhist art from Northern India and Pakistan is that it all in a nice central area which  frequently double’s as the museum’s event hall… for a while it even had a small bistro. They still usually have chairs there, sometimes even tables. Very convenient for laying out your kit and creating especially good and accurate sketches.

Anyway this sculpture, representing the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati, is from the famous temple site of Khajuraho in north central India.  This is a frequent image in Hindu sculpture. What I really like about this piece is the sculptor created a really convincing feeling of affection between the two figures.