Life of Pi

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When I started reading Life of Pi (written by Canadian author Yann Martel), I was absorbed into Piscine Patel’s childhood family life in India. This book was so well written, and the first few chapters, known as Part 1, had a way of lulling me into a deep sleep (I would read this book before going to bed) with magical narratives of zoo animals, adolescent growing pains, and the exploration of spirituality. And then as Pi’s family was moving their whole world across the sea from India to Canada, I turned the page and entered Part 2. I was immediately engulfed. Suddenly this calm tale had become a page turner that had me burning the midnight oil to read how Pi survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, which raises questions about the nature of reality and how it is perceived and told.

This book completely captured my imagination, and a few nights of good sleep. The long horizontal plain of this painting provided a sense of expansive scale that I associate with Pi’s time spent stranded on a lifeboat with Richard Parker somewhere in the vast Pacific Ocean.

Life of Pi is a 24x48" acrylic and ink painting on a 1" thick canvas, and does not come framed.

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Nautical art has been a long established motif which for many was used to convey the beauty of their surroundings or the dramatic hardships of a sailor’s life. In my current series, I'm attempting to evoke the romantic gesture of transition, a theme found commonly thread through so many nautical compositions, almost creating a dreamlike state. To help accentuate this abstract upheaval often felt during transit, I've taken inspiration from J. M.W. Turner to develop my gestural painting style, while grounding the seascapes, by adding detailed illustrations of ships from both historical and fictional seafaring tales.