When poppies, cypress trees become design

From looking at Rembrandt's works in Holland with the dreamy-eyed romanticism of a young art lover to coming to India some 30-odd years ago to learn about miniatures, designer Brigitte Singh fell for traditional textile printing while looking for handmade paper in Sanganer here.
And the rest, as they say, is history -- and, for the present, a new book.
India's colourfulness and its rich history of textile was a "feast" for her eyes on her first visit, Singh said, but she found love in her heart for traditional block printing and dedicated the rest of her life to it.

Speaking at the launch of her book "Brigitte Singh: Printress of Mughal Garden" here at the 11th Jaipur Literature Festival, she talked about her love for textile, prints, poppy flowers and cypress trees, among other aesthetics.
"I went to a museusm in Holland and asked if I could look at the works of Rembrandt. They sat me at a table and I watched these drawings and thought I could actually do it. The same thing happened to me when I came to India," said Singh.
"It was a feast all the time. A feast for my soul through my eyes. It's a crazy world for textile. The paintings and the stories within stories," she added.

The book launch was also attended by eminent art critic B N Goswami, who was reminded of the Persian word "Chatakh" looking at the work, which, apart from bright, is also "the sound that a bud makes when it opens".

"It's a sound you and I cannot hear, it's a notional sound," he noted.
The Indian poppy flower that has been used as a motif by painters for centuries also finds place in Singh's work for it is "beautiful and dangerous" at the same time.
"The Indian poppy has inspired so many painters, so many artists. It's not a flower with immense beauty, whether it's a garden poppy or any other...It's a flower with great nobility and like all special flowers it is beautiful and dangerous too," the noted designer, originally from France, said.

Driven by the beautiful designs she sees in everyday life, Singh says her imagination comes from her way of looking at things with "wandering eyes".
"The first thought of a print or a design that becomes a print usually comes from my way of looking at everything with wandering eyes and anything can capture my eye. I think I do live a lot by what I see," she said.
Edited and compiled by Bishwadeep Moitra, the book documents Singh's work with Indian blockprinting over the last three decades.
With contributions from Laila Tyabji, Jasleen Dhamija, Rosemary Crill, Jacqueline Thom Jacqu, Michel Biehn, among others, the book illustrates how she has approached her craft with an archaeological devotion, peeling off dusty layers from the longobscured story of blockprinting in the subcontinent.

It also includes five augmented reality videos, which document the block carving process; the printing workshop; the stitching process; Singh narrating the story of Jaipur print and speaking about her creative journey.