The Hindu : New Delhi News : Music a muse for painting

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
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New Delhi

Music a muse for painting

Madhur Tankha

A painting by Sandhya Singh on display.

NEW DELHI: A six-day solo exhibition of paintings featuring music on canvas by veteran artist Sandhya Singh is now on at the All-India Fine Arts and Crafts Society gallery here.

Inspired by noted Greek philosopher Plato’s memorable quote, “Music gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and …. life to everything”, Sandhya has been depicting classical music in her paintings for the past three years.

Stating that music with its eternal bliss has been a soul of life to her, Sandhya says she is fascinated by music and its extraordinary divine powers to soothe, heal, regale and support. “My discovery of music has been helped in no small measure by the heart-stirring, soulful renderings of many great maestros in the field. I have studied Indian classic music on my own. As an artist I wanted to experiment by blending music with art. My fascination for music turned into inspiration to capture its simplicity, humility, harmony and rhythms through the medium I new best, my canvas. Thus began my journey on the musical road,” adds Sandhya, who is based in Noida.

In capturing the essence of music on canvas, the artist takes recourse to the abstract, utilising harmonious mixtures of colours to represent tonal harmony and the illusion of repetitive motion to represent musical rhythm. “I use wave motion to represent the progression and the eventual merging of the notes into the infinity of time and space. Besides the progression, music also has an emotional aspect – the aspect that affects us the most. I listen to the musical renditions of Hindustani classical musicians Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Hari Prasad Chaurasia and then try to depict their legendary works through my brushstrokes.”

Pointing out that mood is related to colour and vice versa, Sandhya says a colour always evokes a particular mood. “Hence a colour combination symbolising a specific mood can be used by rendering musical notes, corresponding to seasonal raga,” she adds.

Sandhya did her Masters in Fine Arts from DAV College in Dehra Dun in 1977. Besides group shows, she has done solo shows in Houston and San Diego in the US, Mumbai, Jamnagar, Kolkata and Dehra Dun.

Titled “Wings of Mind”, the exhibition that opened at the AIFACS gallery on Rafi Marg this past Friday is open up to this Wednesday.

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