Quarantine has been a substitute world of artists, where creativity remains un-quarantined; full of beauty, tranquility, simplicity, awe, spirituality, anxiety, explorations and experimentations where the reality of the world lay far behind the veil of colours and expressions. Personalized expression opened a doorway to impulse and imagery.
Dr Meera Kumar, a recipient of Doctorate of indegenious arts by Academy of Univeral Global peace; Kempegowda and Kannada Sahitya Parishad awardee, whose traditional Mysore paintings are a reflection of hours of intricate work, where thin lines of gesso work can be observed in the fine details of jewellery and folds of clothes. The work embossed in gold leaf is preserving the culture of over 500 years old Mysore traditional art.
Giliyal Jayaram Bhat’s abstractions are a search for creative directions from within and without to form new equations with the world. An effort can be seen to go beyond existing and unselfconscious making, where the objects are lost in the world of excitement, wonder and pleasure.
KG Lingadevaru’s ‘Finding yourself’ is a representation of a quest in the journey of discovering oneself, delving deep into self, simultaneously influenced by social life and finally transcending towards enlightenment. One can see the playfulness and easy flow in the forceful lines of white and black figures flying across in his paintings.
Basava Raj Achar’s canvas is enriched with very fine linear drawings, emboldened just in a few places. The simple, daily items like thread and needle, box, cones, trees and birds and flowers- all are part of his drawings. He adds another creative dimension to them and makes familiar things appear so new and entrancing.
Alka Chadha Harpalani’s works are like a pictorial diary, in a way, where multiple layers of digital effects add more meaning to her observation by travelling on the path of conceptual to virtual. She likes to mix her magics. There is a representation to integrate personal sensations of ‘Togetherness’, where the two hands with overlapping chains of lockdown support in creating visual variety. Her self-portrait with wings and linear elements in background leads the composition into coherent painterly forms. It’s a correspondence between feeling, form and technique.
Ramesh Terdal has been carrying out his search in spit and splash of myriad colours across the canvas, where one can see playfulness, spontaneity, freedom and also an exploration of forms from the accidental approach. An effort can be seen to go beyond existing and unselfconscious making of a new art language.
Manisha Mohnani’s work the interaction of figures plays an important role in her paintings representing nostalgia and refreshed memories. The works resonate with emotional interaction and a sense of solitude where one can see the figures float in a trance with graceful distortions in an effort to conquer one’s inner self.
Veena Vyasatheertha’s ‘Floral Symphony’ is reflecting positivity and hope, a weft of colour sensations. The artist has captured the sense of rejuvenation on seeing new buds pop through spontaneous exploration of colour, texture and form.
Swaroop Venkataraman has made a series of portraits, embellished with multiple textures through burnishing and layering with a distinct focus on realism and traditional aspect. It’s an ode to woman who makes the world come alive, add colours, is an inspiration and a pillar of strength and a centrifugal force of own little world called family.
A spurt of colour in blue, orange, black and gold adorns the skyscrapers and their play in reflections in water can be seen in the work by Lakshmi Priya.
Debajyoti Roy is pushing the limits of reality by creating miniatures sketches. He explores the treasures of choices and tries to form new equations with the world. There’s spontaneity of approach in his paintings as well as sketches.
Ila Srivastava is focusing on drawings, where she has drawn a back of a man and fixed red wings on him. It may be a wish to fly out when confined in the lockdown times.
Chitra Narayan’s acrylic paintings comprise of transparent cubic forms depicting the aerial view of cityscape. She is fascinated by the linear designs of railings, grills, spires, towers and barricades in a building, which later on gets reflected in the boldness of geometric forms in her paintings. One can see a thorough study of the forms to reach to the expression of the simplification with colour, order and clear direction of action.
