The creation of Wash Paintings

The style of the figures is a mixture of three existing forms of Indian artwork that can be found in the painted or sculptured art forms in temples
throughout India.

The faces - specifically the eyes, nose, and lips - and the hands and feet are drawn in the style of the paintings located in the Ajanta caves. They
represent a two-thousand-year-old fresco style of artwork.

The proportions used in the figures are like those of the sculptures in the Elephanta caves near Bombay. These proportions were chosen because
they are so beautiful and delicate, unlike the proportions found in the Ajanta cave paintings, which are very heavy and result in dwarflike figures.
The sculptures in the Elephanta caves represent a style that is thousands of years older than the familiar Rajasthan style of artwork that is
generally recognized as Indian art.

The postures and movements are inspired by the ancient sculptures of the Ellora caves and the Khajoraho temple because of the grace,
preciseness, and expressiveness that these sculptures exemplify.

Another important feature of the artwork is the rich use of hand postures. There are not more than ten hand postures that are generally drawn by
artists throughout the world. Indian art, however, uses as many as sixty-four hand postures, reflecting the sixty-four hand postures used in Indian
dance rituals and worship. These hand postures, or mudras, have their own symbolism and language and are used as a way to express emotions.
The richness that is found in the hand postures of Indian art is a gift to the entire world. The artwork uses these hand postures as a language of
the heart as opposed to the language of the head.

ajanta caves éléphant caves

khajurao temple

ellora caves

The wash painting technique consists of eight steps

Wash painting is a special technique of painting in which both watercolour and tempera are used to create the desired effect. Watercolours are
used in their pure form and opaque white or black are avoided until the last step of the painting (see step 7 below) or are not used at all. The
watercolours are applied the same way as in a watercolour painting, but a special technique of fixing colours is used that the painters of pure
watercolour do not use.

There are eight steps in creating one painting:

There are eight steps in creating one painting:

1. Lining : Draw or line the entire drawing with dark colour lines and then fill in these outlines with lighter colours. This technique is useful in
colouring any figure or for creating any mood. For instance, if the trousers should be yellow, then the line drawing of the trousers is done with
orange, which is deeper than the yellow that will be used to fill in the trousers. If the body of the figure drawn is going to be brown, the line
drawing of the body should be made with the deeper tone of the burned sienna, which can be darkened by adding a touch of Prussian blue. If the
scroll the figure is carrying has to be white, the line drawing of the scroll should be done in cobalt blue.

In the face, the eyebrows and eyes should be lined by Prussian blue. In lining the lips, one should use carmine in the upper lip and vermilion for
the lower lip. The nose and ears should be lined with the dark tone of the colour used in the face. If the hair is supposed to be golden, the line
drawing of the hair should be done in the yellow ochre. If the hair supposed to be black, the lining should be done in Prussian blue.

2. Fixing the Lining : Before filling in the colours, the line drawing should be fixed by pouring water over the painted surface. Whenever
colours are applied to art paper or silk canvas, they are partly absorbed by the paper or silk. In the fixing process, the extra colour that does not
penetrate the canvas or paper is washed off. The painted paper or silk is either floated in a tray full of water or it is placed on a wooden board and
then water is poured on the board in such a way that water does not fall directly on the painting but floats over the painting and rinses off the extra
colour. When clear water starts running from the board then the pouring of the water is stopped. Then the painting is allowed to dry on the board.

A brush should not be used to remove the overflowing colours. The colours should flow out from the painting only by pouring the water. The
fixing process is repeated each time colour is applied to the painting. If the painting happens to be made on silk, one should use water in which a
few soap-nuts have been boiled for the fixing. Soap-nuts also should be added to the water used to dissolve or thin the colours used in painting.
A silk canvas should be gently stretched on the drawing board on which the fixing is done so that there are no wrinkles or bubbles.

3. Filling the colours : After the canvas is completely dry, all the figures and forms that have been drawn should be filled in with colour. Every
colour should be used in three tones: highlight, middle tone, and depth. The colour of the middle tone should be selected first, and then water is
added to this colour to make the highlight colour. The colour for depth is obtained by mixing a darker tone to the colour of the middle tone. The
colour chosen for the middle tone will be the visible colour of the drawing.

4. Fixing the colours : The colours used to fill in the painting should be fixed by the same process that was used for fixing the line drawing.

5. Background : Then colour should be applied to the background. The corners of the painting should be a darker tone of the colour used for the
background.

6. Fixing the background : After the background is coloured, the painting should be fixed again to stabilize the background colour.

7. Wash Stage : Now comes the wash part of the painting. The artist should think about the mood that the painting represents and what colours
will best present the environment the artist wishes to create---the effect of day, night, or any desired time and the effect of the season.

The colours used for giving a wash are not water colours; they are tempera and are opaque. The use of white is quite liberal during the wash
phase, whereas white is avoided prior to this point. Three tones of each wash colour should be made, as in step 3: highlight, middle tone, and
depth. The artist may use as many colours as he or she likes to wash the painting.

After the wash colours have been prepared, the painting should be made wet with water. Because the colours have already been fixed, no colour
will come out of the painting. Any excess water should be allowed to drip off the painting before the wash is applied.

The wash should not be too thick or too thin. It should be between the consistency of thin honey and boiled milk. When the wash is applied, the
entire painting should appear as if it is behind coloured fog or clouds. The corners should contain the darkest area of the wash colour.

Before the wash step is completed, the artist should take a dry brush and remove the wash colour from the face, hands, and feet of any figures in
the painting. The wash colour must still be wet when the colour from the face, hands, and feet is removed. Once the paint starts to dry it is too late
for this step. The painting should be left in a position so that any extra wash may flow off while the painting is drying.

8. Fixing the Wash colours : After the painting is completely dry, the wash colour needs to be fixed. As in step 2, water is poured over the
entire painted surface and any extra colour rinses off.

More Washes

If the desired effect for the final painting comes in one wash, there is no need to repeat this step, and the finishing of the painting can then
proceed. If the colours are not the proper tones, shade, consistency, or if they have washed off from certain areas, then the artist should start all
eight steps over again. The artist should approach the work as if it is the first time he or she is working on the painting.
8. Fixing the Wash colours : After the painting is completely dry, the wash colour needs to be fixed. As in step 2, water is poured over the
entire painted surface and any extra colour rinses off.

More Washes

If the desired effect for the final painting comes in one wash, there is no need to repeat this step, and the finishing of the painting can then
proceed. If the colours are not the proper tones, shade, consistency, or if they have washed off from certain areas, then the artist should start all
eight steps over again. The artist should approach the work as if it is the first time he or she is working on the painting.

The artist should:

1) Do the lining of the drawing with the same colours as before.

2) Fix the line drawing.
3) Fill in the colours.
4) Fix the colours of the painted figures.
5) colour the background.
6) Fix the colours of the background.
7) Give a wash with one colour, or as many colours as the artist thinks are needed, and remove the wash colour from the face, hands, and feet of
the figures before the colours dry.
8) Fix the colours applied in the wash.

One can feel the difference in the appearance of a painting after it has received two washes, and the wash process can be repeated if a stronger
wash effect is desired. Some of the paintings in The Birth of the Ganga received more than four washes, and most of them received at least four
washes.

Now the painting is ready for finishing.

The beauty of Indian art lies in its delicate line work. In Western art colours and tones define the division of space but that is not the case in these
wash paintings. In finishing wash paintings we repeat the lining of the face, fingers, toes, dresses, and ornaments with the depth colour. The face
is finished by applying colour to the lining of the eyebrows, eyelids, eyes, nose, lips, ears, and chin. The upper lip is always made darker than the
lower lip. In areas where greater depth is needed, such as near all joints and folds, additional depth lines are added.

The painting will now start reappearing from within the clouds of wash. To maintain the effect of the wash, the figures and everything else drawn
on the painting should fade and merge with the background near the extremities of the painting.

Some images provided by Pieter Weltevrede showing Harish Johari giving washes :

The Use of colour and light

Colour in the paper

I want my paintings to have colour not on the paper but in the paper. All other artists in the world have their colour on the paper. And if you take a
particular painting from a painter and you put it in a bath tub he will scream at you. And if you do that to me I'll laugh at you. That is the only
difference. Because I make a painting - what I do is: I start with a sketch. I do the sketch in colour. Then I take it to the bathtub and I put water and
let all the colours flow out. Whatever pigment has been absorbed by the paper, remains in the paper, the rest of the colour which was on the paper
is gone.

Then I sit down and I give colours to the drawing, using all the knowledge available in the west about painting and all the knowledge available in
the east, because I don't restrict myself to a particular thing. I use the technique of giving highlights, giving middle tones and giving depths exactly
the same way as any western painter does. The only thing is I am not hard. I blend all these things in such a way that you can't see any highlight
very prominent and also you cannot see any depth very prominent, they all blend in with one another and yet, the right amount of depth should be
there and is there and the right amount of highlights is also there. The right amount of depth also excites the highlight.

So I use the same technique and then after the painting is finished completely I put it in water again. And then all the colour which is on the paper
washes off; whatever remains is mine. Then I take the colours that I think will create the mood. And I mix those colours with a little white colour
and then I go over all the painting; all painted areas, blue and red and tallow and green. And sometimes you can feel that the blue colour is passing
right over the yellow colour. And you can think that the blue will make the yellow green, but when I take it out and I put it in water again, the blue
can never touch my yellow and can never make it green. That is impossible. But this is because I do the fixing of the colours, when I put in water.
After I colour it, the colours which are there, now are fixed. And no other colour will disturb them. Then I fill the other colour over it, the other
colour does not disturb it, and only produces a harmony inside the original colour.

Then I put it in water again. All the colour washes off. Then I again put in the lining as I was doing for the first time, as if have never started the
painting. Then I put it in water again. Then I put the colours as if I have not put the colours in it. Then I put it in water again. Then I go over the
whole wash again, so that all the colours in the painting completely hide. Sometimes you will see that the painting is completely lost. But after it
dries up and I put it in water again all the colours come out exactly the same way I want. Then they feel secured.

Most of the times it happens like this: I am making a painting and it is not finished, I know. And I am working on it. And somebody comes and
says: "oh god, when did you finished it?" and I say: "oh fantastic, it is finished. Take it." So that way I work with my eyes and with the eyes of
persons who see my painting, and through their impressions and how they feel about it…and if all of them feel that it is perfectly finished I will
have to feel that it must be finished, although I never feel it is finished… and I never made a really finished piece in my life. Always there are
mistakes that I can see.

So this is the process of watercolour on paper, and when I give washes I use paper. Putting in water is not washing; putting in water is fixing.
Wash is putting colours on a painting and burning it in on tone and creating certain effects. So I do it on water colour on paper with opaque colour
and that way I make a combination between the transparent and opaque colours, but because there are no colours on the paper itself they are
transparent anyway and that is why it gives a different effect.

On silk I use water with soapnut. Soapnut is a nut found in India, which has soap made by god not by man, and gives lots of foam. It is very
good for silk and we use it for hair and things. And always I use it for fixing my paintings. I don't touch clear water in those silk paintings. I put
colours, also with the soapnut washing and also dip it in soapnut water each time I paint; like I do the water colour on paper. And finally I finish it
and also put it into the soapnut water and the colours they fix.

Light

There is one difference between our climate and your climate: we have very much light. So we don't use that much of darkness in our paintings as
we find in western paintings. Here the sun is less and the rooms are closed, because of the climate. You don't have open windows, open rooms
and at the time when these traditional western painters where there I think electricity was not there. So naturally they are not having so much light.
So they have more darkness inside their pictures.

The other thing is the use of light and shade in our technique. Your technique is much different. You use the flash of light as if it is coming from
one particular place. Or a dramatic theatre-studio way of lighting, from the back and from the other sides. So they always highlights spots, parts of
the paintings. In our paintings we think the light is coming out from the painting, from the body of the deity. So our light and shade system is not
that way; coming from one source of light, but the picture has light from within coming out. So all those parts which need light are lighted already
as if it were from within.

You have most of the time artists who have seen very much fog in their life; very much mist in their life. So their colours go into grey, and they
are not really bright colours. Whereas we see colours very pure and very brilliant and very shiny and we those colours also the same way. But we
use gold and silver also very much. Well I don't use them in my wash-paintings because these colours are opaque and I need transparency. But in
my pastel colour technique, which is my usual tempera technique in India, I use these colours and I like them.

Following is an extract of an Interview which was given by Harish Johari to Louwrien Weijers in the Year 1978. In the interview, Harish Johari
gave answers to a letter of questions from Alexandra Gabrielli, who was publishing an article on Harish Johari as a painter in the March 1979
issue of the Dutch "Bres Magazine".
We have a tradition in our family that we paint the life of "Krishna" on every "Janamasthami" (Birthday of Lord Krishna) on a wall, as a fresco.
My grandmother painted it, my great grandmother painted it, my great grandfather painted it, my father and mother painted it and me and my
brothers and sisters painted it and our children are painting it.

So we saw from childhood on something happening every year. Every year for Krishnas Birthday we painted the wall. We burned the coconut
shell and we made the black ink out of it. We made about one hundred shades of gum, Arabian gum, Indian gum. Then we made colours of our
own, wall colours. We took the raw colours from the market, which were earth colours, and then we put them in gum and we made our own
colours. We made our own brushes. And then we painted the life story of Sri Kirshna on the wall and afterwards we worshipped it. From my
childhood I saw this and everybody in my family was very interested in it.

That is what made me an artist! Because when you make the life of Krishna, you are not only making the life of Krishna, you are supposed to
follow a formula. You have to make Lord Brahma, you have to make Lord Vishnu, you have to make Lord Shiva, you have to make Narada, you
have to make Hanuman, you have to make Ganesh, you have to make the Goddess Saraswati. You have to make Krishna in the cradle, Krishna
stealing butter, Krishna killing demons, Krishna dancing with gopis, Krishna doing this, Krishna doing that. In one big piece we have to show all.
And after some time everyone remembers everything by head.

Every year it is repeated on the birthday of Krishna. All sorts of colours you have to use, all sorts of decoration. Shiva has got to have snakes and
Ram has got to have this and Hanuman has got to have that, you have to make cows and horses and forests and rivers and snakes and birds, and
all figures and events shown come to our mind easily. It's like a tradition. We don't have to do much learning, all those things become very natural
to us and that way I got interested in painting.

The subjects of indian spiritual art

Science & Philosophy

Actually my father wanted me to first study a science, physiology and body chemistry, so that I become a doctor. And then when I did my
practical part I felt I was not able to do it. I did not like it. You have to cut up the animals and you have to do lots of things and I could not work in
that way. But my father said when you don't want to study this, then you have to study philosophy. And I said "No, I don't want to study
anymore. I think I have done my study. I want to finish. I am an artist."

And he says: "Artist is only half. You have to work with both sides. You have to understand philosophy; without philosophy no art is possible.
All philosophy needs expression, needs to be drawn, painted, sculptured so that people see it as a visual and it is registered into their minds,
slowly and gradually; then it leaves a deep impression on their minds and they bring it into their behaviour. They are like a child. So philosophy
needs art and art needs philosophy. Without philosophy what is art going to portray."

So I studied philosophy and I did my masters in philosophy and as a poet I used philosophy as my expression and my thoughts were directed
towards that. I was only thinking in that way.Also science which is a very tough, rough subject is very beautifully explained in Indian
iconography; the entire science of physics, the science of psychology, the science of sociology, interpersonal relationship… all these things are
very nicely interwoven in Indian painting and in mythology.

No models
A main difference in art forms between east and west is that most of the time Indian artists are confronted with a problem: there are no models.
They work purely with their imagination, with their memory. We don't ask anybody to stand in front of us and lean in a particular way: so that we
sit down and we make all his body and curves seeing him, watching him all the time. So we don't do the modelling work.

We have basic lines in our mind and we see things in certain ways, so naturally we have work coming out from our memory from our imagination
and we don't have the exactness of a model. And why is that? Because we don't think that the art is something to be copied from the outside world
and the nature, but we think art is coming from within the mind. The mind has already been seeing all these things throughout his life and then he
has to present his own image of what he is seeing, rather than asking somebody to stand with a spear in his hand, for seven hours, for twelve
hours, two weeks and then try to be able to make that form. We see a man somewhere, we never ask him to stop. He was doing his role. We have
seen him and that's all in our mind and whenever the time comes that we want to portray him, we just go inside of us and see the memory which is
in our mind and then we make it.

I think there is no artistic, and no real, and no natural, and no close, to art in copied models. Then also you can take a picture, a photograph of
somebody, as lots or artists now are doing. They take photographs of the landscape and photographs of everything and then they just make colour
reproductions of the photograph. So they are not doing anything which is not present in nature. They are just copying the photograph and that is
why they have come to techniques where they distort pictures and present pictures in different techniques calling it modern art, abstract art, this art,
that art.

But in our art it is always abstract, because there is nothing concrete in front of us, it is only a very abstract idea that comes to the mind and then it
becomes very slowly concrete on a piece of paper, or else a canvas. And there is no internal expression and whatever we have registered into our
mind and not something which has been taken or copied from outside.
Hands

This Brahma is supposed to have four heads, which are facing four directions and that way energy is being spread all around. And then he has
knowledge; Veda's in his hand, he has the purification device water in his hand, and he has a mala in his hand. And he has one hand granting a
boone. Now, if you make twenty hands all alike it looks odd, so naturally the guy has to think of twenty different mudras, forms of hands,
whereas a western artist is never confronted with that problem.

Dance

We have always dance, because we believe that when you have no body, when you have no weight, and if you come on this earth, you have to
balance yourself. They are not earthly, they have no physical bodies, so they cannot balance themselves on earth being straight. Therefore they
always have their feet and hands moving. So our gods are always dancing.

Art Meets Spirituality

All spirituality comes from Artists

'Art in common language stands for expression, this expression has to be done with symbols. I am using words now to express myself. These
words are symbols. Expression is connected with your total being that is a combination of your physical body and your psyche. Your physical
body comes from your father and mother, who come in you as genes. These genes carry traditions and thus every artist carries some impressions
in his own DNA-molecules, which is the experience of the culture to which one belongs.

In India all that exists as Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads or any kind of scriptures comes from artists. They were called rishis, saints, seers and
visionaries but they were actually artists. You will find in India an old tribe of saints known as "visionary artists", who are poets, musicians,
singers, sculptors and painters. These people created the greatest existing and most ancient literature of the world. The Vedas do not come from a
prose writing dry intellectual mind. The Vedas are written poetry. The Bhagavad Gita is poetry. The Upanishads are poetry, its verses are so
compact that only one line explains the entire law of Karma. Art is a very precise expression.
So, all spirituality that people know about in the world, where do they know it from, if we the writers, if we the painters, if we the sculptors, if we
the musicians did not sing it, sculpt it, paint it or write it?

God knows no language

All spirituality which is known to the world does not come from God, because God knows no language. He does not speak English, Dutch,
French, German or Sanskrit. He is just giving inspiration. And inspiration can only come to inspired people. Those who are depressed, those who
are only thinking about their future, their social status, name and fame. These people have no time. They are too busy. Only those people who are
the most crazy of the entire humanity have time to waste, have time to devote to a particular subject and keep on with that. They are the people who
can receive inspiration.

Spirituality is nothing different from art. Art plays an important role in the evolution of spirituality. Recording, drawing, painting, have carried
thoughts from one generation to another. Indians do not believe in history. They believe things repeat as in nature. There is morning, noon,
evening, and night. In the same way there is childhood, adulthood, old age and death. So Indians believe that we do not die with this body,
because we are not this body. We know we take birth again if we have that desire.

So, when you take birth again what is the use of writing all these things which are connected to one birth? One birth is not you, therefore there is
no real history. It only exists as a department in the university for scholars to get a grant. In the same way this whole world is based on things
which are used by commerce, mass media, being the most powerful weapon in the hands of the people who have money. But Indians don't believe
in newspapers either. They see no use in collecting information which keeps changing. One talks about the past, one talks about the future and the
present is gone. Man is never living in the moment. But it is in the moment that one lives inspired.

Beyond the material reality

Indians have really exhausted the limit of thinking. The artists of India take the human mind beyond the limitations of thinking. That is what
scientists as Einstein and others replied when they were doing work on nuclear physics and people asked them: "Why do you read books like the
Upanishads?" They said: "Because it takes us beyond the material reality. It gives us a way to break through our framework of mind". So, the
Upanishads is nothing but art. It is art that gives the rational mind a break.

After the drug revolution, which is very important for those who are interested in seeing how man broke away from the old patterns at that time
and tried to get a new way of thinking by opening the windows of their minds, new ways of expressing came out which were not known before.
That was a fantastic revolution. This again was done by artists. All revolutions have been lead by artists. Afterwards people joined them, but
actually the ones who brought it out were artists.

All saints were artists

The whole concept of spirituality is a gift from the artists of the world to the world. If writers had not written there would be no scriptures. If
sculptors had not sculpted there would be no gods found in the temples. If painters had not painted there would have been no visuals to meditate
on.

The reality is that real saints were real artists. From their awareness they contemplated, concentrated, meditated, and came out with symbols which
were immediately accepted and adopted. According to the Vedas all people were in the beginning artists. Through those visionary artists who
devoted themselves completely to spiritual life all the symbols of art came out. That is why art and spirituality are inseparable.

Artists are representatives of time

Now, in modern times, the artist gives an expression of how society has gone away from wholeness. Artists are true representatives of their time.
They keep the pulse of their tie in their hands. By feeling the pulse the artist knows what is happening to the world. With his special faculty which
is intuition and imagination he projects ideas and thoughts into the future and models and new symbols come out. The artist tries to show the
people where they are at. Society is directly related to the artist.
Artists are responsible for transferring symbols from one generation to the next. If they do not maintain themselves in a right way, what comes out
through them will not be right. Therefore most of the time artists are living like saints. If you see artists they have no bank balance, and if you see
saints they have no bank balance.

Before I came out of India I thought artists and saints are the same. But after I came out I saw some art and thought that this cannot be made by a
saint. Then I realized that some artists are an ego in action. Those artists who understand that they are messengers and reformers, they know that
there is a relation between their conduct and their art. They know if they live as pure beings their art will be pure. To us art is directly related to the
gods. If Buddhas were not painted nobody would ever have known. There is no actual picture of Buddha available. It was an image done by a
sculptor which became a symbol of Buddha that is now very popular. What is popular? Is Buddha popular or the artist? Actually it is the artist
who made Buddha popular. It is the artist who lives as Buddha in your head. It is the artist who lives as the scriptures in your head. It is the artist,
who creates all religion, all spirituality, and he is such a humble creature, he does not want to take any credit out of it. That is the real art. Other
than that, I told you, is only E...G... and O....'

Comparision of Eastern and Western Art

The great masters

To me the great masters in the west are as inspired as any great master from the east. So I don't find any difference in their work and in our work.
I feel that they are fantastically inspired and they have made such beautiful pieces of art. Like what is his name, the most well known artist here…
Rembrandt, and I have seen the work of the person who made the Mona Lisa, what is his name…Leonardo da Vinci, and I also saw the work of
Vincent van Gogh and in America where I lived I went to all the museums and saw their collections of all great masters.

When I see their work I feel really inspired and I feel really that I have not done even a fraction of what they have done. They did so much work
with so much labour and so much exactness and so much beauty and such beautiful use of colours, that I really feel like adoring them,
worshipping them, and feeling how great these persons were. How could they create such great things. So that way I feel that they have the same
patience, they have the same emotions. And they use colours and things.

Beyond the senses

You said: "Our art goes beyond life itself…" And that is something which an artist always tries to do, but the way we do it in the west, we maybe
never get really beyond life. Well, if they do it with copying something outside then it is not like a meditation. And then they transcend the age
stage and they get very deeply absorbed into what they are doing and then they attain one-pointedness and all the things that one attains in
meditation. And that is why in India the art… I am not talking about the modern art, which is coming now, because of all the influences of the
western art… but the arts which are still existing in India were actually all portraying religious feelings. And so their art was taking them beyond
the real life and was giving them away into a higher sphere of life.

I think that in western art things are very beautiful but the symbols are not really beyond the realm of sense perception. And so it does not take
you beyond that, It keeps you in the world and most of the time it is a nice apple on a nice plate or a chair or things like that, which are man-made
objects or objects present in nature. They are only portrayed in a very beautiful manner, and very close to nature like a good coloured luxury
photograph. But it has not that much of symbolic meaning and communication value and that is why that painting only absorbs you for a particular
time and then you lose interest in it and you go to the other thing.

Conceptual art

Conceptual art, which is living art, becoming a model, becoming a painting themselves and not making a painting; not putting out on canvas what
you feel but through your action, through your behaviour becoming and living it. Which is a different type as our form of art, but it has also its
own things. But this art is working with the consciousness of the people who are there and after the performance is over, it only remains in their
mind as memory but we can not show it to the coming generation as to what it was all about. So that is a different form of art and this is a different
form of art. This art tells history, and most of the history that is recorded in the world becomes art work, from sculptures, from architecture and
from those things which are telling how civilizations were and how people lived and what they thought, rather than recorded history in the form of
books, our recorded language form telling about the past history. So art has been forming a purpose of telling history and transferring tradition
and carrying out lots of things from the past. So it is a medium that comes from the past and goes into the future and connects the past, future and
present. Whereas with conceptual art it lives at the moment and after that moment it disintegrates, it only lives in the memories of people and is no
more to be seen, except if you have photographs of that action or a movie of that then you can show what people were doing as they have now
video-tapes of it. But that is something very different and also there is limitation. You have to think in the same work of what you are. I can make
an engine flying and let the same thing sink deep into the mud, but if I want to show it as a conceptual art form, it will be very difficult. But in
paintings it is very easy. I can paint twenty hands and twenty heads and thirty feet. In conceptual art it is very difficult. So there are certain things
which are only for painting, certain things only for sculpture, certain things only for movies, certain things only for poetry and in the same way
certain things can only be done best in conceptual art, and certain things can only be done best in painting.

Modern art

About the approach of the artist I would say that the approach of the western artist in the past was very much similar to the approach of the artist
of the eastern countries; they were all trying to portray the principles of life as told by the religious saints and seers and taught by the religion and
the highest philosophies of the world and they were completely following those things and coming out with their own way of reaching people to
adopt and understand the philosophy present behind the works of the saints and seers.

But now people have gotten more egoistic and they want to come out with their own individual egos and their knowledge is not as vast and their
symbols are not as universal. So they come out with individual platforms and patterns, sometimes though those platforms and patterns have a
universal appeal… Equally implicit for all people from all cultures, from all places of the world. And sometimes they have only a certain appeal
which is very timely and after a particular time those paintings lose their meaning.

One thing with the new way is fantastic, because you are creating new avenues and you are creating new ways, and you are creating new
expressions and new mediums and new manners and new techniques and that is very good. So I think it is also very good.
And this (his own work) is also very good; sometimes for some people to devote their lives and to work steadily, very softly, very gently, very
slowly and work on the things which are universal, and which are very much based on human nature and portray human nature in a right way;
classical things. So, I think I like both things.

And I also find in the new art, in new western artists very much a religious element. So people have their own moods and their own ways.
Sometimes they are able to put them together in a right form and they are nicely knit together. Sometimes they are very scattered and they look like
riddles and puzzles, but sometimes they look like a big paste where lots of garbage has been stored and sometimes they look like a great shop of a
jeweller where things have been arranged in ornamented forms and they are very beautiful. So I find that whatever people are seeing they should
do.

Sincerety

Art does not mean that you should express in a certain way. Art only means a particular way to be able to see things outside and form it and bring
it out from inside; communicate it with the people who can understand it and who can know it. Art is an expression and expression has got to be
enclosed by the time, by the age, by the problems of the age. And I think they are justified in doing whatever they are doing, whatever way things
come together, whatever they see.

I think a basic honesty behind all these things is the honesty of the artist. If he likes to work honestly, treat his paintings as something very right
that he is doing, love his paintings, spend time with his paintings and do it in a way that he does not want to get rid of it, but he is involved in it, he
is absorbed in it, then his sincerity and his faith, and his love and his devotion comes. And if he is sincere in his work, I think it can be any
expression, any form. Art is art. Art is art.

Harish Johari Art Teachers

Chandra Bal

Then I met this teacher of mine shri Chandra Bal and he is about sixty years of age, an old man, very tiny… He has an art school called the
modern school of art and when I paint, I go to him, if I am in Bareilly. I go to his school regularly as a student. People ask me what do you do
here, they think I am a teacher, but I tell them I am a student and they don't believe it. But it is true, I go there, I sit there in his presence, at his lotus
feet and learn from him. I paint, I sketch - he likes my sketching very much - and he says that he cannot sketch like that, but I think that he, if he
tries, he can. But I cannot paint like him, that is why I go to him. He is such a beautiful painter. So nice that I cannot do as good work as he is
doing in painting, so I learn from him.

Shehem Habathar

I think there are very many people who know more than me. I know one person who I was very much inspired by and he was called Shehem
Habathar. He was a teacher of sculpture in Lucknow college and I used to go and sit with him, hours and hours together before I became a
sculptor. And I saw him painting, all these forms; he made fantastic Saraswati, goddesses of learning and beauty, he made her sculptures, and
Shukundala. He is still alive and serves as a teacher of art in the Lucknow college.

Bigoy Chakra Wartie

When I was a student of Lucknow university doing my masters in Urdu at that time I came across one person who brought me very near painting.
His name was Bigoy Chakra Wartie.

Dhar Maha Patra

Then there was a teacher of art shri Dhar Maha Patra, he was a sculptor coming from the tradition, from the family of the person who made the
Ajanta and the traditional style which is 2500 years old. As a sculptor there was no teacher except my own eyes which were mostly sitting with sri
Dhar Maha Patra and Bigoy Chakra Wartie, two sculptors of my country, watching them sculpt, that's all.

Avatar Singh Panmar

Then I was also in company with Avatar Singh Panmar who was working with modern art, and he was a sculptor and a painter and he made
fantastic drawings and paintings, but very much modern.

Nager

Then Nager, a very good painter.

Meditation on paintings

In Tantra Yoga, the meditation on paintings of deities and yantras of deities is an essential part of Tantric worship. It enables one to get in contact
with the energy patterns associated with the deity. The deity image or the deity yantra is the form or body of the deity, wheras the mantra of the
deity is the mind, spirit, consciousness or name.

Using the faculties of hearing and sight together is tantra. One subtly receives information from the forms, colours and sounds. Tantra enables a
type of learning that goes beyond rational understanding to really feeling and knowing truth. Meditation on paintings of deities and on yantras
works through the visual hemisphere of our brain.

On a very basic level, the meditation on paintings of deities is simply easier than the meditation on abstract concepts. By concentrating on
Ganesha and the spiritual attitude that he symbolises, one strengthens that attitude within one self. Daily concentration on the courage and
selffless service of Hanuman will make it that much easier to follow his example in time of need, with both the mental image of the deity and the
related mantra acting as carriers of that attitude. The same goes for all gods and goddesses, such as Durga being a great help in overcoming our
internal demons.

One might say that in this way meditation on the painting of a deity helps one to awaken that deity within oneself. When a yantra or other painted
representation of a deity is adopted for worship and the energy is invoked in it, it becomes a symbolic representative of the deity - and actually it
is the deity himself when the sadhak abandons his analytical, critical nature - and the energy circulates in the higher centers. Every such painting
becomes the dwelling place of the deity by whose name it is known.

That process obviously starts with the meditative creation of the painting by the artist himself. The act of painting is an act of worship, especially
if also accompagnied by meditation on the particular nature and energy of the deity and by the recitation of mantras. Pranapratishtha, the invoking
of prana (vital life force) of the deity is essential for a yantra or an idol, and this is done with the help of mantras.

Through meditative painting and through further worship, paintings of deities may thus gather particular energies and become objects of power.
This is similar to the relics of saints being powerful or temples and other places of worship that have become places of power. The particular
nature and concentration of energy depends on the nature and concentration of the worship performed and on the deity that is respresented. Such
energy "stored" in a painting might for example facilitate meditation.

Saguna Dhyana

Dhyana (uninterrupted meditation) is of two types : saguna, with form (sa - with, guna - attribute) and nirguna (nit - without, guna - attribute) .

In Tantra Yoga, meditation on the chakras and their deities is with form until Kundalini pierces the sixth chakra. Then it becomes meditation on
the formless supreme truth (nirguna dhyana). This is the final stage of dhyana, the concentration on the supreme truth having no shape, form or
name.

Although meditating on the formless, nameless, supreme truth is the summum bonum of dhyana, it can only be achieved by prolonged practice of
concentration on the deities with form. It is the journey of the I-consciousness from precept to concept. It is said that a precept without a concept
is empty and a concept without a precept is blind.

The process of transcending from form to formless is like learning the initially abstract characters of the alphabet through the use of examples.
Then after one has learned the alphabet, the apple for "A", ball for "B" and cat for "C" disappear. One can then make words and communicate by
combining the letters of the alphabet into words, sentences and paragraphs. Just as symbols of the alphabet are helpful in learning a language, the
deities of the chakras are helpful in spiritualisation of the cognitive, conative and affective aspects of consciousness. Then, just as the symbols and
also the characters themselves disappear, the divities with form also vanish when the formless divinity is reached.
 

Kundalini Yoga

In Kundalini Yoga, the meditation on and the visualisation of the chakras is done in gradual progression, beginning with the first chakra and
 combining the letters of the alphabet into words, sentences and paragraphs. Just as symbols of the alphabet are helpful in learning a language, the
deities of the chakras are helpful in spiritualisation of the cognitive, conative and affective aspects of consciousness. Then, just as the symbols and
also the characters themselves disappear, the divities with form also vanish when the formless divinity is reached.
 

Kundalini Yoga

In Kundalini Yoga, the meditation on and the visualisation of the chakras is done in gradual progression, beginning with the first chakra and
moving step by step towards the seventh. The center of concentration should be the chakras and not the gross organs of the body. Yoga schools
that provide no images of chakras can only suggest that the sadhaka should meditate on the heart or between the eyebrows. However, this keeps
the focus on the body, whereas the goal in Kundalini Yoga is to go beyond body consciousness. In Kundalini meditation, one gets absorbed in
the abstract yantras, mantras, deities of the chakras, which spiritualises the consciousness. Thus tantric visualisation aided by colouring the
images of the chakras is a much more effacious practice.

To help prepare for meditation on the chakras, the sadhaka should first colour the images of the chakras to establish them in the mind's eye. Then
once one has coloured the images, they are retained in the mind and internal visualisation becomes easy.

Thus working with the first chakras also includes working with Brahma and Ganesha. The second chakra is related to Vishnu and the Rakini
Shakti. Third chakra meditation involves Rudra (a form of Shiva) and Lakini Devi, a compassionate form of Kali. Fourth is related to Ishana
Rudra Shiva, a symbol of detached happiness. The doorkeeper of this chakra is Kakini Shakti and it is also here that the Kundalini Shakti appears
for the first time. In the fifth chakra, the deity is Panchavakta Shiva, a combination of all Shiva energies. The doorkeeper is Shakini, the
embodiment of purity. In the sixth chakra, Shiva and Shakti merge into Ardhanarishvara, half male, half female. The doorkeeper is the goddess
Hakini, an aspect of the Kundalini Shakti. In the seventh chakra Kameshvari and Kameshvara should be meditated upon, Shiva and Shakti, the
Lord and goddess of desires, seated upon a lotus in eternal embrace.

As an example of excellence, meditating on Kameshvari and Kameshvara stops the natural downward flow of nectar (amrit). Thus the upward
flow of energy is enhanced, enabling the yogi to stay in the Brahma Randhra or Shunya Mandala (void center), the hollow space between the
twin hemispheres. He or she who thus stops the downward flow of nectar becomes immortal in the phsyical body. He or she thus remains
forever young, enjoying eternal bliss through the union of Shiva and Shakti, the ultimate goal of Kundalini Yoga.

Using paintings in tantric worship

Paintings and sculptures of deities are an essential part of the Hindu worship known as Puja (or Pooja). In temples or home shrines, one finds
images of many gods and goddesses that are worshipped on a daily basis. Many different kinds of tantric worship and puja exist, in which
meditation on the yantra, painting or sculpture of the deity is just a part.

Many kinds of worship are prescribed according to the nature of the aspirant and the objectives of the worship. The sadhak is free to choose a
deity or yantra, whichever triggers him or her emotionally. He or she has a multitude of gods and goddesses to choose from. Each represents an
aspect of the divine or of the spiritual path.

Worship of Lord Ganesha is one of the unique features of tantric sadhana. The external image of Ganesha is charming and attractive, although not
acceptable to the rational mind. Worshiping Ganesha quiets the left hemisphere and enables worship to be performed without obstacles. The
greatest of all obstacles is our own doubt, which weakens faith and blocks worship as the path of spiritual evolution. Removing that doubt is the
purpose of worshipping Ganesha at the start of any tantric worship.

The worship should begin with purification. Visualisation should be practiced only when one's breathing does not interrupt ones' concentration,
so breath controll excercises (pranayama) should be done before visualisation.

For many, visualisation is not easy. Painting deities and yantras and then using those paintings in visualisation is the easiest way to develop the
practice of more abstract visualisation, which in time will lead to deep meditation.

Effects of paintings without meditation

Even if paintings of deities are not directly used in meditation, they can be usefull far beyond the purely decorative effect. Having them around
subtle affects one's mind and keeps one in a more spiritual mood. Especially if one knows the stories that explain their symbolised energies, these
paintings become real friends. They can lift ones' mood in the blink of an eye. Subtle effects can be very powerful triggers to changing how one
feels. As symbols of perfection, deities usually make a better case than most mortals.

Paintings of deities should preferable be hanged into relatively clean and pure places. Giving these paintings proper respect, keeping them clean
and clear, is act of worship already. Small offerings of flowers, insense, etc... contribute to creating a spiritual athmosphere around the painting
and deepening our relationship with the divine within and without. Inviting paintings of deities in ones home, means subtly inviting their energies
as well.
One who appears as many and is yet One."

So began her interview with one of India's most versatile men - a gifted artist and able composer, a popular expounder in both lectures and books
on the healing arts, astrology, yoga, tantra, numerology, gemstones, even massage and ayurvedic cooking Johari, age 64, was in a jocular mood
for the interview. "It was a joy to watch him," reported Amritha from Holland, "His entire personality is one of creativity," Johari's most recent
creation is Birth of the Ganga, a stunning collection of 45 paintings done with Pieter Weltevrede (his Dutch student of 20 years, and in whose
home the work was done) and collaborators.

"Every year from the age of two," recalls Harish, "I went to Haridwar and came to love Ganga. She has the power to heal, to purify and to
energize. I thought it would be very good to do Her story, because I love Ganga and you like to paint whatever you love." Ganga's biography is
well known, and Harish follows the traditional stories from the Skanda Purana and other sources. He recounts how Ganga originated in heaven
from the energy of Lord Vishnu, then descends to Earth as a result of the penance of King Bhagirath to liberate his ancestors from the
netherworld. Each painting depicts one of the scenes, such as when Lord Shiva catches Ganga in His hair to break Her torrential fall to Earth, or
how She is led out of the Himalayas and across the plains of India by the king, finally reaching the ocean at the Bay of Bengal.

The book is important for its sophisticated art - the result of decades of development by Johari. "I did not copy any style," he explained. "I liked
the art work which was done in Ajanta Caves [200 to 600 CE, Buddhist, located in west-central India]. They drew very beautifully, nice eyes,
nose, for-mation of the body. I also saw at Elephanta Caves [near Mumbai, 600 CE] that the proportions used in the sculptures were beautiful.
And at Khajuraho [900 CE, central India], I saw the way in which they expressed stories and the various hand gestures. From this I developed a
unique style which actually existed thousands of years ago, but in the form of sculptures, not painting." Specifically, Johari explains, "Our work
is mostly line work, because we believe that it is very important to be clear in what you do, which can only be seen through your lines."

The technique combines that delicate dark line art with pastel watercolour shades and an overall colour cast created in the final washing stages.
The silk paintings are mostly done in browns, greens or blues and, though obviously "Indian," are very unlike typical poster art. The best are the
master-fully composed kinetic scenes, such as of Ganga being led through the plains, as well as the divine depictions, such as Ganga emerging
from Brahma's chalice. These are capable of eliciting a primordial devotional response of Godliness, even if a person had no knowledge of the
subject matter.

Johari's main collaborator and student, Dutch-born Pieter Weltevrede, 43, began his study of art twenty years ago. He worked nonstop for one
year to create the paintings in Birth of the Ganga. "Although I helped with the compositions, colour selecting and the finishing of the paintings,"
Johari writes in an afterword to the book, "it is Pieter who deserves the admiration for creating such a beautifully illustrated story." Pieter was
born a Roman Catholic but, he said, "I consider myself more a Hindu because they are more open." Married with three children, Pieter became a
vegetarian 25 years ago and started the practice of yoga, but painting is his main form of religious expression. "I find that painting gives peace
and makes one calm. It helps concentration and is a preparation for meditation," he said. Fortunately for Hinduism, Pieter has pursued this form
of art in lieu of more lucrative commercial art - an option only made possible by support from the Dutch government. It is enough to allow him to
paint all the time, and he says he is weltevrede - his family name - which means "well-satisfied."

Johari took to the canvas as a child. Every year, for example, on Janmashtami, his family would paint the story of Krishna's life. "The whole
family worked together," he recalled. "My mother made the borders, my father the landscapes, my uncle the stones, my other uncle Krishna
sitting on those stones, my sister, my brother, everybody contributed to it. We'd paint Krishna doing so many things - playing with a cow, lifting
an elephant, running, jumping, standing. It was done all in one day, and from it I learned storytelling through art." The specific technique of wash
 
painting used in Birth of the Ganga Johari learned from Shri Chandra Bal, who in turn learned it from Bhawani Prasad Mittal who studied art at
Shanti Niketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. In this method, both watercolour and tempera are used, and the paintings are rinsed with water
several different times to remove excess colour and allow additional colours to be applied without interference [see photos page 23]. Shri Chandra
Bal has also directly instructed Pieter in this method and helped with the Ganga paintings.

If Johari's family life and education were unusual, his entry into adult life was decidedly extraordinary. As a young man he worked as a factory
manager. However, upon getting married he asked his new wife if she was "prepared to starve." He explained to her that he wanted to pursue a
career in art, and that almost certainly meant they would be poor for a long period of time, but in the end both happy and rich. The alternative for
her, he said, might likely be a miserable husband unhappy with years in a boring job. She agreed, and Johari quit his promising job the next day -
to the astonishment and utter dismay of his mother. He then took up art projects not for money, but for payment in kind - clothes, rice, spices, etc.
- and that way managed to avoid even having to shop. "We had no money to spend, but we had food to eat, clothes to wear and everything I
needed was there."

Johari likens learning art to studying language in order to write a novel or to write poems. One must learn the necessary grammar, vocabulary and
writing techniques. The aspiring artist, he advises, "should like-wise learn to sketch, to draw, to paint, to use depth, highlights and middle tones;
to know which colours go together and which don't, to understand the difference between harmony, contrast and balance. If they know these,
they have the freedom to compose whatever they want. Then you must be a great observer, and know what things look like. Good art needs no
captions to explain itself."

Johari had a bigger vision than just success in art. He is blessed with the ability to sleep just three hours a night - 2 AM to 5 AM. As a result, he
says, "You find it very difficult not to learn and not to absorb, because otherwise what will you do? I didn't want to go to a club or spend my time
gossiping. Instead I would sit with a vaidya, a doctor, or a musician, a painter, an astrologer." His sleeplessness made him an expert in a number
of esoteric fields, and produced over a dozen books - all wonderfully illustrated, and several among the best available on their subject.

"I am a follower of Sanatana Dharma, the ancient religion, also known as Hinduism," Johari explains about his religious beliefs. "In the ancient
religion, they worshiped one God with so many forms. They knew that behind everything there is one energy that is working, the Shakti or
mother principle. The science that especially works with this Shakti is called tantra. But it is not the tantra that is known in the West. When I came
here for the first time, people said, 'Oh, you do tantra, then can you teach me some of the sexual things?' I said that my tantra is not that tantra. My
tantra is the tantra of devotion, of concentration, of worship. It is a method that makes it possible for people to get what they want through
meditation and concentration."

Johari is an advocate of using both sides of the brain - the right side of intuition, imagination and art; the left side of analysis, language, reason
and computation. "I think God has given you two sides, and you are supposed to use both. Have faith, but don't trust blindly. Doubt everything,
but doubt the doubt. Some people doubt God, and believe their doubt as dogmatically as people who believe in God. The best thing is to know
and understand and fall in love with God."

"If asked," Johari went on, "I will say that as I am called, I'm a Hindu. But I think of myself as a person who sees the Divine in everything and
can accept every holy book as a holy book, every Deity as a Deity, and every person as God incarnated in a particular form. I think Hinduism
provides lots of inspiration to live, and it tells you that whatever you get from the world is all divine. The light of the sun, the ocean, the
mountains, the river, the trees are not just nature without intelligence, without consciousness, and you have the right to do whatever you want to
do with them because you are the king and they are just your subordinates. That is something which is very wrong. Hinduism teaches you to see
God in everything. That is the greatest lesson that it gives. It inspires you to adopt practices which make you more civilized and friendly, more
lovable and enjoyable, more inspired, a good person and a good citizen of the world."
can accept every holy book as a holy book, every Deity as a Deity, and every person as God incarnated in a particular form. I think Hinduism
provides lots of inspiration to live, and it tells you that whatever you get from the world is all divine. The light of the sun, the ocean, the
mountains, the river, the trees are not just nature without intelligence, without consciousness, and you have the right to do whatever you want to
do with them because you are the king and they are just your subordinates. That is something which is very wrong. Hinduism teaches you to see
God in everything. That is the greatest lesson that it gives. It inspires you to adopt practices which make you more civilized and friendly, more
lovable and enjoyable, more inspired, a good person and a good citizen of the world."