Saraswati (Silk Original) – Tilly Campbell-Allen

This is a painting on ahimsa silk of the Hindu Goddess, Saraswati (Sarasvat).  She is wisdom knowledge, science, art and music. She is Shakti power and knowledge, including that of harmony and Universal harmonics (as represented by the veena she carries). With this, Her companion, Brahma, was able to create the Universe. She is a Buddhist guardian deity and by her virtue and purity, assister of those practicing the teachings of the Buddha. She carries malas and texts to represent her meditation, care, dedication and wisdom. She is carried on an inverted, pristine white lotus as a symbol of her rooted, continued quest for more learning – her ‘standing-under’ this symbolic representation of the concept that there is no completion of learning, no completion to the creation and a steadfastness to always continue. Her pure, wise, inquisitive, discriminating sacred swan,  accompanies her, riding the celestial waters together.

Often depicted as a Luna Goddess, Saraswati was originally worshiped as the Goddess of the Sarasvati river and Water, along with the moon, is seen as a feminine principle. Like the deep wisdom of an ocean, water is receptive to her environment and adjusts accordingly – liquid, gaseous and solid – It can be perceived as intuitive as water always finds her way, and creation, as the seas give birth to life and rivers flow quenching thirst and feeding roots. Water is relentless in its pursuit to keep moving, gently penetrating or a raging torrent through to ascending and falling as rain. Water  wants to be pristine, full of music – from the torrential storms and gentle pitter-patter to the deafening crashing of a cascade of mountain waterfalls, rolling waves on the shore to a stream trickling over pebbles .. she forms…she makes beautiful.

Painting on Ahimsa silk, with a mix of ecoprint and eco dyes.

Size: 13.78″ x 21.7″  (35cm x 55cm). May 2016.