I got inspiration to paint another Shiva. Shiva is quite a controversial deity among the hundreds of Hindu Gods. He is also one of the three most powerful ones, so called Trinity. With this third painting of mine of Shiva I aimed to depict his power, as he sits in the ocean break, unperturbed.
As I already outlined the god Shiva is part of the Hindu Trinity, along with Vishnu and Brahma.He is considered to be everything by those who worship him:
creator, preserver and destroyer.
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In Shiva, the opposites meet and I love that about him because it makes him more easily "relatable" for us poor humans!
Shiva the destroyer is a necessary part of the trinity because, without destruction, there can be no recreation.
His city is Varanasi, and any Hindu who dies there is believed to go straight to heaven.
Shiva is the source of both good and evil who combines many contradictory elements. Stories and legends about Shiva and his life have no end and no shortage of variations.
This link can tell you a few of them:
Don't get turned off by the name of this video. It says great things about Shiva too!
Here is how I created my Shiva:
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This was the process until I got to the final part, which was the break of the waves over his back.
I used this element to show Shiva's strength and unperturbed peacefulness in the face of adversity (he was famous for being able to be in meditative bliss even if the world around was going havoc).
Well, Ok, perhaps it looks a bit like snow is falling from the sky..
...but I really like the final result!
I also like the choice of colors, which I wanted to limit to just a few basic ones, so that the contrast of light and darkness would be more dramatic.
That's one of the worlds I wanna explore in 2020- world of dramatic paintings created by contrast of LIGHT vs DARKENESS.
After all, isn't this what's life all about?
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Final Result
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And here are my two other Shiva paintings:
Shiva Meditating
Shiva and the Phoenix
I hope you like the process and the story of Shiva! And feel free to tell me which one of my 3 Shivas is your favorite!
Strength and Honor of Shiva to you my friends!
Thank you for your support,
Much Love,
Jan
