Elephanta caves

My father was visiting me this weekend, so I decided to take him along for the sketch walk. He had always wanted to see Elephanta caves so I asked Kishan to arrange this week's sketch meet up there. The whole trip was lovely! The Ferry ride with occasional spotting of huge Navy ships, the toy train ride, the monkeys snatching our food and finally the caves!

Like a fellow traveller said "This is beyond my imagination. How some people back in 8th century dug out these caves to make something this beautiful!". Yes! the caves are extremely beautiful. Although most of the caves were damaged after the Portugese rule, the most prominent bits still remain intact while the others have been restored.

I found myself a quite place on the side, as I wanted to sketch the pillars and the whole perspective play. The other people were sitting in the main cave and drawing the famous sculptures, and before they could finish, they were asked to move as sketching inside the premises is not allowed! Yup, you read that right. Only once a year artists are allowed to sketch/paint inside the caves. The reason behind this is beyond me.
As the other people in the group moved out and sketched outdoors, I finished my sketch:

Elephanta caves

A broken pillar

We finished the session with a nice lunch at the MDTC restaurant(It was impressive!) and a trip to the Afghan Church. Later, I took my father to Leopold cafe, Theobroma and Jehangir art gallery.

Great Sunday!

Warm up sketching at the Ferry