Devotional Artwork:
Prints, Paintings, Poster, T-Shirts, Badges
CintāmaṇiDivineArt.com is a collection of my artwork that depicts Divinity using the ‘as it is’ principle that His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda taught. That is, that one should not speculate on the form of the Lord and so my work depicts actual Deities that are worshiped according to the bonafide Pancaratika Viddhi process of Deity Worship in ISKCON Temples, other such established Deities in other Temples or Ancient statues.
The reason why I did so, was that once I understood that I wanted to be a serious Artist, I faced a personal choice on; whether I would paint from my imagination on how the Lord would look like in my mind’s eye or whether I would depict the Lord from an actual bonafide Deity. So I decided to follow the instructions of my spiritual master Srila Prabhupada – the “As it is” principle.
Here is a quote form Srila Prabhupada that further illustrates why I made my choice to paint Portraits of Deities and Ancient Murties (Statues).
Srila Prabhupada says regarding how our Artists should portray the Lord in their paintings:
“This is not a good style of painting. It is an artistic style for sense gratification only. I cannot encourage this style—it should be stopped immediately. Paintings should be like the Deities, formal and worshipful. This type of painting is sentimental and not authorized. Paintings should be as our artists in New York are doing. Do not introduce any new styles.” [Letter to Madhudviṣa: LA 8 Dec 1973]
This would mean that I would bring the Deities of the Lord into the world of Art via the ‘as it is’ medium of strictly following our Vaiṣṇava Scriptures. In other words I attempt to paint Them precisely as They are found on the Altars in various Temples and so on. Also making sure that any adornments in the way of dress color or Jewelry are in keeping as much as possible with descriptions found in Scripture.
So I am embarking upon a career which found me beginning with my first painting being that of my dearest form of the Lord which is found in our ISKCON Temple in Śrī Vṛndāvan Dham, the Deity of Śyāmasundar (Yellow Rose Śyām).
I now paint in the ‘mood’ of a Pūjārī [Priest] who is dressing the Deities in different themes, as is done in the various Temples throughout the world of Deity Worship; for example I may have a certain color theme for Their clothes and adorn Them with jewelry and ornaments similar to the way in which a pūjārī [priest] would do when dressing a particular Deity form of the Lord or Deity.
Hence this Website’s name being ‘Divine Art’ is Art in its most purest Divine form.
Profit from the sales of Artwork will go to the development and preaching activities of Prabhupada Vision Trust. Our Prime place of service is Śrī Vrindavan Dham, U.P India, where we engage in Street Cow Sevā amongst other services with local Community children. (more)
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