Poetic Expressions on Canvass

By: A Purushottam, The Free Press Journal

The main hall of the Jehangir Arts Gallery this time is occupied by this 75 year old artist from Belgaum, Shri K B Kulkarni. On the cursory look the theme employed by him looks very simple and without any pretensions and so-called isms the landscapes with panoramic view and the female forms are the main ingredients of his oeuvres. But all over the show a different kind of mood prevails, which is very difficult to explain. His female figures depict moods connected with the human beings. Even his landscapes exhibit mood something like sad and with melancholy. For me, my emotions get translated into forms and colours. They acquire these forms, he states pointing towards the paintings. For this senior artist, paining is an exercise like poetry, but more like a visual poetry. Or it is like music emanating from his soul.

Simple and appealing stuff like this will definitely make place in the hearts of the livers of arts, and this show is on display till February 23.

And if one goes a little further to the next section, one comes across the large canvasses, with tribal women populating them. Can a woman better? And one look at the works of this talented lady, and the answer becomes very oblivious. Manic, is an artist who believes in combing her leisure with the passion called painting. Her paintings of the tribal women folk from west Bengal. Also show her concern for the society and the surroundings in which live.

In her canvasses, the women folk are throbbing with vibrant colours, despite the fact that they lead a very simple and hard life. Their happy mood and gaiety etc. are captured in a very interesting manner. The artist justifies their existence by presenting them in very simple attires, in which usually they are found. Here artist’s concern and imagination take right path and the paintings present the naturalness with right perspective.

For me painting is an instinctual process. It is an experience of seeing that passes into an experience of painting. It is a manifestation of reality, inseparable from the mechanisms that go to record it, this young and energetic painter from Delhi, Niladri Paul, states.

Niladri’s creations are full of colourful life in desert land like Rajasthan. Two contrasts, yet two realities of life. The desert land and vibrant lifestyle. Perhaps, this aspect had attracted the artist and compelled to transform has ideas on his large canvasses. Robust men with colourful turbans juxtaposed against the back drop of towering sand dunes, man and women in their rural fineries creating music and enjoying it are some of the themes of his creations pushkar mela of Rajasthan forms the main ground for this painter. And he succeeds in bringing out the essence of enjoyment of rural, rustic life styles.