In 1974, Sri Chinmoy took up painting as yet another field through which he could inspire his fellow man. He called his painting ‘Jharna-Kala’ meaning fountain-art’ in his native Bengali, or art flowing from the inner source. Sri Chinmoy says of his painting:
“The whole picture does not come to me at once. As I start painting, I see a streak of light right ahead of me and devotedly I try to follow that streak of light. But on some rare occasions the light is so powerful that I envision the painting long before I have actually touched the paper, I don’t bring it forth; it comes to the fore from within. In the light the colour is there. Each time I see the streak of light, I see the colour.â€
In the years following his entry into the art world, Sri Chinmoy produced an enormous number of paintings – almost 200,000 in the year 1975 alone. In 1991 he began a new series of drawings titles ‘Soul-Birds’ – drawings of birds that capture aspects of the human soul. To date he has drawn over 15 million of these birds.
Sri Chinmoy’s paintings have been displayed in such notable galleries as the Louvre; in addition, exhibitions have been held in national houses of parliament and UN-affiliated organisations across the world. At the time of writing, there are travelling exhibitions of Sri Chinmoy’s artwork in quite a few countries all across the world: last year saw exhibitions in London and Paris, and a recent exhibition was held in the Ukraine early this year.
Read more about Sri Chinmoy’s art on this site…
Related links:
- Sri Chinmoy Art: painting gallery, plus Sri chinmoy’s writings on art.
- Gallery of Jharna Kala at Sri Chinmoy Centre
- Video footage of an exhibition in Ottawa, Canada displaying Sri Chinmoy’s first one million bird drawings.