KALI - काली - The Destroyer, The Transformer, The Protector

When in difficulty Durga summons Kali to fight Raktabija as each drop of blood from his wounds has shed a clone demon. They have become to numerous.
Kali sucks the life blood of Raktabija from his body and licking each drop of blood with her toungue she devours every clone demon in her mouth.
It is rumoured Kali sprung from Durga's forehead.

The characteristic icons that depict Kali are the following; unbridled matted hair, open blood shot eyes, open mouth and a drooping tongue; in her hands, she holds a Khadga (bent sword or scimitar) and a human head; she has a girdle of human hands across her waist plus a necklace of skulls and an enchanted Shiva lies beneath her feet. Each of these icons represent a deep philosophical epithet.^[26] The drooping out-stuck tongue represents her blood-thirst. Lord Shiva beneath her feet represents matter, as Kali is undoubtedly the primeval energy.
Shiva pacifies Kali from her destructive frenzy when slaughtering demons. Her skirt of arms is made up from them that she has slayed as is the necklace of skulls. She has been known to dance over the battlefield of bodies in a frenzy, drunk on her victim's blood.
She is an all powerful, all female manifestation of the primal energy.

Ajay Sharma & Kali

So one week in Jaipur studying and learning miniature painting. Just enough time for a taste and a few techniques.
Hand made paper, pigment made from ground semi-precious stones, liquid gold and silver and the use of gold and silver leaf, cut borders and the finest of line painting with the squirrel hair brush. This is a time honoured tradition of the Rajasthan that is concentrated in Jaipur.
Not many teach these techniques to those from the west but one master who does is Ajay Sharma, a truly skilled artisan of Mughal Miniature Painting and he is ably assisted by master in the making Olivia Fraser, who has lived in India for 20 years and studied the tradition under the guidance of Ajay.
My vehicle of transformation was Kali.
A physical representation of Kali emerging from the Kali Yantra top and tailed with the Kali Mantra.
A nice mix of the ancient but combined in a non tradition.

 

 

the design trace using squirrel brush and black soot pigment

flat backgrounds in

outlined and some detail

 

 

hair washed in and prepared for silver leaf head dress

liquid gold & silver for jewelery

head dress, cut lines & gold leaf

finished but unmounted

The Kali Mantra