Colours fill the canvases at Lekha Rejeev's exhibition of paintings titled ‘Inception.' And none of them jar. All the colours are blended in prefect harmony, even the one done in shade of reds called ‘Escape.' Birds in jet black set wing in this painting, just like Lekha's works, which take viewers on wings of fantasy.
‘Kalibou' has an eye peeping out of green foliage, almost chameleon-like. A small verse, written by Lekha accompanies it. Says Lekha on the painting and the verse: “There's this huge tree in front of my house. One day, I thought, ‘what if there was someone living in the tree' and that got me painting ‘Kalibou' and the verse just appeared on paper.”
Her Veronica series of paintings is intriguing. Done on mats, Veronica has almost ghost-like features. “The name is inspired from Paulo Coelho's book Veronica Decides to Die . Somehow the face seemed to be that of Veronica's,” says the artist.
The first in the series of six Veronica paintings introduces this Japanese Kabuki-like character (the face is pale and reminds one of a Kabuki actor). ‘Veronica looks out the window' zooms in to this face that is bound to haunt you even after you have left the gallery. The painting ‘Veronica in the fish pond' is arresting. It has Veronica juxtaposed against gold fish.
An interesting feature about Lekha's exhibition of paintings is that it has been done on various mediums such as newspapers, plastic, mat…
‘My Diva' and ‘My Love' are done on newspaper. Two eye-catching paintings, they are inspired by two important people in her life, her mother and her love.
‘My Diva' has a portrait of a woman with various things like a water pipe, paint brush, palm, and a locked door surrounding her, to name a few. “My mom was the one who inspired me to take the brush, hence the brush in the painting,” says Lekha.
‘My Love' has love notes surrounding a person who is asleep. The Big Ben suggests a time difference between the couple as a face looks almost adoringly at the sleeping face.
Faces
An untitled one has a portrait of a woman done on plastic and paper. Half the face is in purple to help ‘define' the face. That is another thing to be noted about Lekha's works, most of them seem to have faces or parts of faces in them, and they are all done with deft strokes of the brush.
No fine lines to help define the faces and its features. Perfect examples are ‘Conversations' ‘Hurt' and ‘Scandal.' Thick lines bring faces and their accompanying expressions alive.
While one has to look close to see a couple kiss in ‘Scandal,' ‘Conversations' has outlines of faces in gossip.
Paintings of Kathakali actors on cloth with the expression of indifference and surprise respectively are noteworthy. Lekha's exhibition of paintings at Leaf Art Gallery, Nathencode, is on till February 9 . The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
