Street Side View-Master

HTemp:  36c

Rain:       0.0cm

`-$:         44.04

Murals are big in Chennai.  Any empty stretch of wall along a street that's a block or more long is ripe for a series of murals. Usually, they are organized around a specific theme.  Landmarks, nature, landscapes, energy, famous people.  When driving by a set of murals, one only gets quick glances of them flashing by, giving the sense of flicking through a View-Master disc.

Near our house is a set of murals devoted to a landscape theme.

Here are some highlights.  This one is quite accomplished -- perhaps it's the valley at Yosemite?  What other guess do you expect from an American?

Sometimes you get lucky and have (what we in the film biz call) foreground action that fits perfectly with the mural.  We hope the tree provided some relief.

Then things get a little weird.  Maybe Van Gogh-like psychosis takes over.  We'll call this set the "Water From Nowhere" series:

How about romantic sunsets tripping into surreal apocalypse fantasy?  Bring it on:

Peacocks are always a good way to show off all the colors in your paint kit. Why not?  Finally, let's just combine everything we've learned from wildfire backgrounds to strange foreground palm perspective. And then there's (mis)appropriation of the cameo style for our little boaters.  Excellent!
Don't forget to click the pictures to view them larger....