A
few weeks, before the harvest festival of Pongal, I was in Sydney, clearing the
compound of garden debris. Buried under a mound of dried leaves were some
mangled branches and the trunk of a young tree , about 8 years old as inferred
from its annular rings. The leaves were quickly carted away to generate some
free garden space
As
regards the trunk and branches, the idea originally was to cut these to pieces
with a hacksaw and dump the bits into the Council's tub meant for disposing garden
waste. That would have been mulched into bits and finally strewn somewhere.
But
while sawing, I observed that the timbre of the timber, indicated that the wood
is good and hard and that made me change lanes in my thinking. Karthik
suggested to retain the log as a show piece and Preethi said that the shape is
that of a Didgeridoo and mentioned that it could be painted as such.
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| Aboriginal mask |
I
decided to add some value to the log by painting it as in a Didgeridoo,
considering the shape and size. It was about 5 feet long. The Didge, as it is
called, is an aboriginal wind-musical instrument, honed out of termite eaten
hollow tree trunks. I cut this solid trunk
and the branches into suitably sized pieces, removed the bark, chipped off the
nodes and gritty bumps, and smoothened the surface with sand paper.
Everything was manually done. Little did I realize that the apparently
cylindrical surface was uneven, undulating and the grains could make painting
difficult
I
tried out some sketches, but was inspired when I saw a set of the colored masks
of one of the native aboriginal tribals. I gave the log a base coat, dried it, then
sketched the masks and painted them using water-based and oil-based colors. Although
this one is solid and does not produce any music, the shape is that of a
Didgeridoo. The words DJIRRI NYURRA mean GOOD DAY in Tjapukai, which is one of
the 250 odd aboriginal languages from as many tribes in Australia
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| First four logs |
And
that's what you have here. It was ready on the day after Pongal and handed over.
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| Deer |
 |
Lioness
|
LLioness
Lioness
ess
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| Lion |
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| Supercat |
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Cockatiel
|
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| Three logs |
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Koala
|
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| Gilli and dandas |
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| Tiger Cub |
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Giraffe
|
The
humble log of wood has been given a pride of place in someone's home as a curio.
It has been resurrected from garden debris to home decor. I have since painted ten of them with
different themes reflected by the variety of Australian flora and fauna
In
summary, from garden debris, (buried under a mound of dried leaves in
the form of broken trunk and mangled branches) to drawing room home decor,
these logs have been treated and have journeyed through de-barking, sawing to size, timber
fill, sanding and polish, base primer coat and sealant with water and oil
colors, Aussie theme sketching, painting and varnishing, all manually done by
an amateur.
What
was originally intended to be mulched and strewn somewhere has been resurrected and given
a pride of place in drawing rooms at the homes of friends
