“I call her ‘Painter Bhabhi’, so I have come to see what all she has painted in all these years,” said Gulzar, referring to Renuka Varma whose debut solo show of paintings was inaugurated by the veteran poet and lyricist recently in the Capital.
“I didn’t know until I saw the body of works that she has stolen beautiful colours from vegetables and fruits to create a series on nature, especially forests. Also, it is important to note that visual art is a strong medium to highlight environmental concerns and this exhibition is doing exactly that,” added Gulzar.
Renuka Varma with Gulzar
Titled ‘Shakhein: Another Tree, Another Sky’, the exhibition is an ode to nature, especially forests and mountains, and Renuka has drawn from her childhood memories of growing up in the foothills of the mountains, Mussoorie where once there were lush green forests and valleys full of flowers.
“These forests have almost disappeared as the hills have been vandalised by all of us. I still live in those forests, and relive those monsoon sunsets, the green hills turning pink, purple and gold,” she recalls fondly.
While growing up, she often used the medium of watercolours to depict the beauty of nature, but her soliloquy became intermittent when she came to the Capital to study law from Delhi University. And after she got married to Pavan K. Varma, whose foreign postings as an Indian Foreign Service officer took her to various countries, it became a long distance relationship.
However, one thing that accompanied her everywhere she went was – painting. It was a medium to keep her engaged, and also a way to nurture her hobby. For instance, in Romania, she was charmed by and created glass paintings, she took to oils in Moscow and Cyprus and recalls that her first serious initiation into art was when she saw a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition in Bulgaria, her husband’s first foreign posting.
“But art always was a secondary thing. It was always in the backstage as I had to first take care of my family, three children and as a wife of a diplomat, I had other responsibilities as well,” she recalls.
However, what she might have never imagined was that she would put up a solo show, and that too at the age of 63 as life had different plans for her. Around four years ago, she lost most of her works in a flood in Delhi. “I was so depressed after that that I didn’t paint anything for three years,” she says.
“Only six to seven paintings were left,” she adds. And when Pavan saw her grief, he knew he had to address it. So, a date for the exhibition was decided a year-and-a-half in advance. Alka Pande, curator of the show, encouraged her to meet the deadline and continuously motivated her. “I have always said that the art which doesn’t move you isn’t art. But, when I saw her works, it completely moved me. They are strong, evocative and beautiful. It is interesting to see how amidst cottony clouds and chirping birds, trees in different stages of movement are depicted with vigour and skill,” she says. The show features around 30 paintings in oils and acrylics on canvas and what is interesting is that she uses a bottle and nozzle as her instrument to create a flowing, swaying movement of the trees, while brush and knife also come handy when creating the textural effect on her canvases. Her colour palette ranges from the bright red of a work titled ‘Poppies’ and tangerine yellow of ‘Genda Phool’ to misty whites of Himalayan ranges and verdant green of the forest cover.
Renuka’s camaraderie with Gulzar is a labour of several years of exchanges. They also share a common thread that binds them together. It is their love for poetry and painting. As she points out, “No many know that Gulzar Saheb is a great painter too. And, whenever we visit his house in Mumbai, I make it a point to see his small studio.
His paintings usually are a response to universe, atmosphere and nature…but they all are ethereal. I hope the way Pavan convinced me to exhibit, he can convince him too.”
(On till March 6, at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre)
