Krishna Art Intro2Pg.htm

While in India, I stayed at the kings personal artisan's family house in Rajasthan. They were also the ones who painted the walls and ceilings of Srila Prabhupada's Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan. So I had the opportunity to learn more styles and techniques of painting.

The Krishna Balaram Mandir
in Vrindavan
When I stayed in Vrindavan, Srila Prabhupada was there and I asked him what is the best way to paint Krishna. He said "Always paint Krishna as the most beautiful, the strongest, and always with His devotees, never alone. God is never alone." I said "What about technique or style of painting , which is best?" Srila Prabhupada said "That you can find out, but you have already found it, I have seen. Now just do more and more....and Krishna will reward. Every temple must have Krishna art. This is best preaching. He chuckled "You have a nice service, the painting...you have no end to it."
Although Srila Prabhupada's ethic was 'quality as more important than quantity', he also recognized the importance of reaching the entire world... "flood the world with Krishna art" ...as soon and as effectively as possible. And so his books, of which many millions have sold worldwide, were filled with the artwork produced by a very determined, regulated, and punctual team of artists,who produced a large quantity of artwork in a remarkably short span of time. They had to have the paintings ready for our on-site photo lab, in order to publish them on time along side the text which was being printed on our on-site printing press. So there was a constant pressure to meet deadlines. But it was ecstatic! I was fortunate in those days (early '70's) to work with that dynamic team when they were stationed in Brooklyn, New York.

When I came back to the U.S. from India I went to West Virginia's Prabhupada's Palace, and painted the ceiling with my friend and famous devotee artist Muralidhar. Somehow I was in the picture on the cover of the Sunday newsmag there as I was walking around the Palace chanting. Then I went up to the Toronto temple in Canada to paint the altar walls and canvas paintings, then to Montreal where I painted 17 panels of the Vedic-style arched walls in the Chez Govinda Restaurant

Painting in Toronto
Unfortunately a few years later the restaurant caught fire and it burnt down along with my artwork. Then I heard that the New York temple was sold and my murals were all painted over. But as Prabhupada said "you have no end to it"...So I kept going, painting constantly. Whenever there were no temple walls or ceilings to do, somehow people would come forward and ask me to paint something original or paint a copy of another Krishna painting.
Intro continued - Click here