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17 August 2020

The Big Picture

How often have we been told to look at the big picture? 

The good part is, no one will admit to not seeing one for the fear of being brandished as not too smart. After all, it is the realm of visionary leadership trait. Details are often relegated to the poor foot soldiers to deal with. After all, Leadership is all about showing the Big Picture is it not? Besides, if we just focus on the small details, we will never get the big picture. That is a good excuse to avoid details and paint your version of the big story. Do you agree?

Having done a few canvas paintings over the past 3 years, I wanted to transition to the larger versions. Or in other words, I wanted to paint a big picture. A very big one at that. The fun part of painting on canvas is that you create your magical world and live in it.  Maybe not forever but at least as long as you are painting it. It’s a different matter that I have never figured out why these paintings always looked better in my head than on the canvas I have painted in.   Well, that is a challenge for another day. 

Armed with paints, brushes a blank wall, and more importantly the permission to paint the wall, I was all set. I even had a reference photo so that took care of the problem of my ‘creative- challenged’ mind. And, before I knew it,  I was staring at the huge blank wall in front of me - A proverbial blank canvas that I could paint my world in. I felt like God. 

But then there was this small question that posed a big challenge. Where do I start? The harsh reality of the magnitude of the task ahead erased every hazy detail of the image I had in mind. (Ok, in the laptop screen).  Did I say, I felt like God? An overwhelmed clueless God, I must admit. 

But don’t little things matter? Don’t these small details make big things happen? I  decided to tackle the challenge by focussing on the details and started painting one little detail at a time. One tiny brushstroke at a time. I chose to ignore the big picture and looked at everything close-up.  I was no longer trying to create a Master Piece but focussed on the smallest of details. Slowly but steadily from the blank emptiness of the wall emerged a serene forest.  25 hours later when I stepped back from the wall, there it was, my version of the big picture. Click here for the video to see the details up close.

Wall painting with acrylics


Not everyone is a gifted visionary. Ordinary mortals like my self, may not be able to paint a big story that inspires the world. But that does not mean, we cannot get there. We simply have to take a different route. We can reach that big picture, with one tiny brushstroke at a time. Layer after layer, detail after detail, element after element we can build our picture up without feeling overwhelmed at not seeing the big picture. 
Small details
Close Up Pictures of the painting to show details

Small details are not the enemy of the big picture. They are not mutually exclusive traits of leadership too. So do not bother about figuring out if you are a big picture person or the details person. You can be both. You need to be both. There is no shame in paying attention to details. 

We can be that foot soldier who takes care of the details that help emerge the big picture. One tiny detail at a time creates a large forest. Nature has been doing it successfully for billions of years. So why can't we? 

17 comments:

  1. Happy that you finally found the courage to take on the larger canvas and conquer it with your indomitable spirit. Most people will merely aspire to be able to see the big picture, you drew one! Well done!!

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  2. Unless you have big picture in mind you cannot get to this point. Visualization is integral part of art otherwise it tends towards abstract. Even abstract paintngs needs some presentation thoughts. Good effort Bhaskar! Painting on wall is always fun and good experience.

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  3. @ baskar, first of all, a big thumbs up to u . I am reminded of your patience and quest for details, which has not faded away even after 25 years. I wish if God would create a vanam like this , which would be obviously the most preferable place for a person to live with nature. Hats off to you

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  4. Thanks for sharing the journey behind making this masterpiece.

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  5. Small details together transform in to the big picture. I just recollected something that I remember reading somewhere sometime. (Its just a cut and paste job I have done to express my thoughts)
    Julia Carney's immortal lines (from her poem, Little Things) read thus, "Little drops of water,/Little grains of sand,/Make the mighty ocean/And the pleasant land./So the little minutes,/Humble though they be,/Make the mighty ages/Of eternity".
    Your writeup ws as big a picture as that on the wall.
    Murali.

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  6. Congratulation Bhashkar....its indeed a BIG picture and an amazing one. I am not sure how you much you are rating to this picture with the one that you had in your mind but it really look like a masterpiece to me. All the best for many more!


    Firoj Khan

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  7. The narration of the big picture is equally as interesting as the evolution of the picture itself. You for sure have a flare for wordplay.....I feel you have a pen in your hand as you have the brush.
    Well...from where the hell did you start man!
    "Was it the path you desired to tread along!
    Or was that the tree trunk you just lean'd upon?
    Could it be the hustle of the leaves
    or would it be deep sigh that the Nature heaves!
    Was it that to the blue sky you flew up or just that kneeled to the grass that grew up!
    Did you say you began with a tiny stroke at a time?
    I guess the Nature grab pulled your brush to hue a thyme -
    Well...you say from the wall emerged large wood....but
    Nature smiles that she visited your wall for good.
    Amazing job Bhaskar!
    Any art is said to choose the hand through which it would evolve just as love chooses it's carriers from mankind. This big picture also has been lying in your wall for so long for the magic touch of your brush.

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  8. Now I have a doubt
    And thinking out loud
    Is it pen or a brush
    That Bhaskar has a crush?!!

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  9. Good one. I always feel it is the small steps that is important. In my view, the guys who are credited with the big picture thinking are the guys who have focused on the nuts and bolts initially. Big picture will evolve.

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  10. Absolutely ...as you create you learn many new things and different perspectives keep appearing
    The flow of words reflect the transition of your thoughts ... beautiful

    Keep creating and keep on writing
    Looking forward to see more of your works
    Appreciate your dedication and consistency

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  11. Excellent way of narrating line by line your thoughts which took you to draw this big picture. Your patience, dedication and interest have come out very well in the art and the nature is very well represented and whenever we will see or imagine it appears we are inside the forest and enjoying the nature..Great Work Baskar...Hat's Off...Best Wishes. God Bless you 🙌

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  12. Great piece of art.

    Big picture is a complete snapshot of today, not of past or future. So it is not an outcome of our work.

    Your painting narrates this clearly. That is the artist mindset.

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  13. First Congratulations Bhaskar for. launching on the big canvas and finishing it!! It looks amazing. The story behind it is equally inspiring.
    I tend to agree with you - you need to have an eye on the big picture while concentrating on the details. I feel that the rigour of the detailed work becomes all pervasive when we know what it will finally add up to. Joining the dots to me is supremely important.
    Keep doing the amazing work.
    Warm regards,
    Kallol

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  14. You are really a gifted visionary.what a thought and execution! Just astonished by such brain power you have for great expressions.You seem to be a prodigy and where have you hidden all theseyears.
    All I can say God bless you kanna

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  15. The wall painting has turned out really great Bhaskar! It is surreal.
    But honestly, I loved the article more.
    It's reassuring and good to hear that its okay to focus on the tiny steps.

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  16. Not just a great painting, Bhaskar, I liked the narrative that went with it. I liked the questions and answers posed by you to the artist within. The philosophy that accompanied the thought, was interesting to read. The angle of spirituality that surfaced therein, was poignant.

    Each of the these have merit.

    Little drops of water make a mighty ocean. so does little grains of sand....

    The pixelated paint brushes translated the inner vision to a grand art work with persistent brush strokes in 25 hours. Isn't it your little drops of water?

    Foot soldiers.....aren't we all in God's grand scheme of things?

    The scoping of vision- sometimes a grand telescopic vision, still stays as a vision, if not broken to a binocular vision, vision by normal eye sight, then to a magnifying glass and to a microscopic one...

    To execute any grandiose vision, one needs all these scopes.

    The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.

    The blank canvas presents itself to us, each day, as an opportunity, to fill colours in.

    What we fill is entirely upto us and our inner visions and voices. Colours of all shades and hues are presented by mother nature, to the willing. Light and dark shares are a manifestation of our inner thoughts.

    We can be overawed by the task in front of us, like you had when presented with this large wall. But when you broke the large wall , akin to a problem, into a million small pieces, the task did not look so intimidating, did it?

    Similarly the artist in each of us, should be able to break our large dreams into fragments that does not look so unsurmountable, and we must each, like a mountaineer, climb each foot of his mountain, one step at a time.

    Sooner, than later, the fruition of the vision happens.

    The artist has his picture, the musician his song, the mountaineer his mountain, the scientist his invention, the student his grades and all visionaries their vision.

    So dream big, think large, have a large vision...
    But then scope it... from zooming to micro vision...
    then take your first brush stroke, your first alap as a singer, your first step as a walker...

    Keep moving...and moving... and ...

    As Vivekananda said... "Arise , Awake, Stop not till the goal is reached"

    As Rabindranath said... " Where the tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection..."

    The artist in us, is ever evolving, one painting being better than the other... till a masterpiece like 'Mona Lisa' emerges for eternity...
    Philosophically speaking, the artist will go... but his artistry; will remain forever.

    This then becomes God... as his creation,'each of us' has helped use his 'instruments' ... to create ... a masterpiece.

    Another God's Creator-Creation-Creator cycle, that we can never understand or fathom.

    Go on, Bhaskar, paint your canvases.. muse over them, pamper your tastes... the world will witness another Leanardo.

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