Nature Paintings With Animals and My Barefoot Journey In Southern India

I was going through my paintings and thinking about what to “serve” you today. In my current state of fatigue, I decided it has to be something that will soothe my aching feet.

"Parachutes", oil on 55x35 inches canvas.For sale.

My feet hurt for one simple reason. I made a barefoot journey all the way from Amritapuri ashram to Kochi airport. That's in Kerala (South India) for those who don't connect the dots. 7 hours in total- one riksha drive, one train ride, one shared taxi drive and lots of walking.

My journey started at 11am in the festive atmosphere of Amma's ashram, where she was just about to serve lunch to hundreds of her devotees as an appreciation before she left on the tour around North India. Amma is a fully realized human being, an avatar of vast Love. I could talk about this extraordinary sadhguru for a looooong time, but today's blog is not about her. I don't have enough juice in me to make justice to this angel.

Now it's 7pm and I am finally sitting in the departure hall in domestic terminal of Cochin international airport. I washed my hurting dirty feet in a restaurant few kilometers from the airport and finally put my shoes on. Until then, I was barefoot. The worse part of the journey was walking from Aluva train station for over an hour to the spot where I could catch a bus that would bring me closer to the airport. Kerala is hot. I had a backpack, yoga mat and shoulder bag. The road was burning my feet and the dirt and little stones made it worse- this is India after all, and as much as I love India, there is no way around one fact : India is dirty.

This was the easy part. Chilling in the doorway of a moving train. Something I can't do in western countries.

Why did I go barefoot? Well, my flip flops fell apart two days earlier and I was ok walking around the ashram. Sure, I could put on my shoes to make the journey to the airport, but for some reason it didn't feel right. I guess I wanted to perform some kind of sacrifice, or I just plain simple wanted to check out how beggars in India feel. I sometimes do random stuff, don't ask me why. I'm not an artist for nothing:)

Ok, this being told, it feels right to show you some nature art that I painted. Something that would soothe my hurting feet, which are now under organized mosquitoes attack. The domestic terminal is full of them. It's not over until I land in Hong Kong I guess.

Almost there! Last 5km!:)

I call my painting of two geese landing in dandelions “Parachutes”. In my childhood we used to blow the dandelion seeds and watch them drift away in the wind. For us, they were parachutes.

I gave a French name to the second painting of a mama bear crossing a massive tree trunk over a river followed by her cub. For some reason, “Une Promenade Enchantee” sounded better than “Enchanted walk”.

"Une Promenade Enchantee", oil on 44x32 inches canvas. For sale.

I wish I could tell you something more funny or interesting today. I will soon, I promise. And the good news is- I am coming back to Vancouver. So you will see new art coming out very soon. This trip has inspired me tremendously. And it will show in my artistic expression, I have no doubt about it.

Thank you for reading,
Much Love,

Jan
@jankasparec

Be happy and embrace the present moment, whatever it brings!