Informal visit by the Minister Iswaran

Minister Iswaran visited the exhibition on 9 May 2018 and had a good informal chat with the participating artists.

Official Opening

Monday, 16 April was the official opening for the exhibition "We Draw Amaravati Together" at Art Gallery@GCV, Temasek Polytechnic where I work as the Artist-in-Residence. The Guest-of-Honour was Mr Khoo Teng Chye, Executive Director for Centre for Liveable Cities. The last day of exhibition will be 20 Jun. All are welcome.

Chief Minister Visit

Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, visited the exhibition "We Draw Amaravati Together" at Art Gallery@GCV, Temasek Polytechnic. He was here only for a day since 6am and before his returned flight at night, he asked to visit the exhibition. What an honour!

ALL ARE WELCOME

The Centre for TransCultural Studies of Temasek Polytechnic presents the exhibition "We Draw Amaravati Together" by Urban Sketchers Singapore. The exhibition opens on 16 April, Monday at 6:30 pm; we are honoured to have Mr Khoo Teng Chye, executive director of Centre for Liveable Cities grace the occasion.

This project is presented by the Amaravati Partnership Office of the Ministry of Trade & Industry and Temasek Polytechnic, with Urban Sketchers Singapore. Banner sketch of the Mandadum village in Andhra Pradesh, India by Benedict Tay.

Please join us on 16 April, 6:30pm. ALL ARE WELCOME!

We Draw Amaravati Together

Happy New Year 2018!

I did a video on my recent sketches on India. I was with my sketcher friends from 08 - 15 Dec 2017 to Vijayawada and Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh on a project called "We Sketch Amaravati Together".

Andhra Pradesh is one of the 29 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of the country. The state is the seventh-largest state in India covering an area of 162970 sq km. As per 2011 Census of India, the state is tenth-largest by population with 49,386,799 inhabitants. Amaravati has 29 villages and it will be the brand new capital city for Andhra Pradesh under the vision of N Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, also the President of Telugu Desam Party and Member of Legislative Assembly, Kuppam.

Amaravati, is envisioned to be a city of world-class standards with a vision of increasing Andhra Pradesh’s prominence in the world. For a start, Construction of the seed capital development area — covering 16.7 sq km and comprising the AP Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, High Court, Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, quarters for the ministers and officials, and the township for government officials had already started.

Our sketching trip is fully sponsored by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore and our mission is to sketch the existing 29 villages in Amaravati to help capture the current heritage and culture before the new city is built.

Battling Withdrawal Syndrome

I am probably having withdrawal syndrome from the India trip. I just splashed and added lines and colours to a very old watercolour paper. I did feel a little better after completing the sketch at home.

Day Seven - 14 Dec 2017

It was free and easy on day seven as we would be leaving for airport in the evening at around 5:30pm to catch a 8:10pm flight from Vijayawada Airport to Bengaluru Airport then take the Singapore Airline flight back to Singapore. I was on an earlier hotel check-out time at 12 and I also had a some discomfort in the stomach so I did not go out in the car to sketch the Krisna River or the city for the last time. Those who were on 3:00pm check-out time did that. After the hotel check-out, we went shopping for some gifts and kurta blouse for me and shirts for my son. I came back to the hotel and managed to do this sketch inside the hotel lobby looking out to the street from the corner glass panel. It was also the last sketch in the Seawhite Conertina Sketchbook. Perfect!

Day Six Afternoon

38m high sitting Buddha in dhyana position at Dhyana Buddha Park, Amaravathi, Andhra Pradesh, India.

The Buddha statue was commissioned in 2003 and completed in 2015. The statue has a museum in the base underneath it, which consists of sculptures depicting scenes with Buddhist significance, most modern copies of the original reliefs from the Amaravathi Mahachaitya stupa which are now in museums around India and the world. The eight pillars signifies path for salvation followed by Buddha, four zones for noble truths and five ayaka pillars for stages of life. Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation is going to complete the Theme Park in front of the statue which is said to be opened for the public in 2018.

Day Six - 13 Dec 2017

In the morning we visited the Amaravati Archaeological Museum and there was a model of The Great Stupa or Mahachaitya in the open courtyard. We were not allowed to take photos inside the museum so I sketched this big sculptural cow on the left. It was about 2.0m long x 1.2m high housed inside a transparent box. We then walked to the ruins of The Great Stupa nearby and stayed there to sketch the park. I sketched the original foundation of the stupa and you can imagine how big was the dome on top of it. All the broken pieces from the stupa were displayed at the museum earlier and it depicted the life of Buddha and the glorious history of the Indian dynasties when Buddhism flourished in Amaravati. The stones displayed here at the park were relics from various locations in India.

Amaravati was home to best known 2000 years old Buddhist relics, which made the place an important pilgrimage for the Buddhists even to this day. The famous monk in the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West" with Sun Wukong, the monkey king was said to retrieve Buddhist sutras from the west, ie Amaravati.





Architectural Drawing by StudyBlue.com, Amaravati Mahachaitya or The Great Stupa was built around the 2nd century. It was the largest stupa in India and the stupa was earlier a simple structure with limestone crossbars and simple carvings, but when renovated by the Satavahana rulers, it became a highly marked architectural monument. Excavated a few years back, this stupa is engraved with intricate carvings that depict the life and teachings of Lord Buddha. If you are interested to know more The Great Stupa and Buddhism in Amaravathi, this link is very useful.