Hues of womanhood

Vidya Sundar’s oeuvre has inner luminosity.

September 04, 2014 05:02 pm | Updated 05:02 pm IST

Vidya Sundar with her creations. Photo: V. Ganesan.

Vidya Sundar with her creations. Photo: V. Ganesan.

La Galerie D’ Expression at the Ambassador Pallava resonates with the quiet power and vibrance of Vidya Sundar’s paintings. The ‘Silent Songs’ series is a celebration of womanhood. “It is inspired by the cosmic rhythm and music inherent in every woman,” explains the artist.

With Nature as her muse, the artist interprets the female form predominantly in terms of the lotus plant – its flowers, stalks, leaves, petals and sepals figuring as recurring leitmotifs. Recumbent, seated, standing, in tribhanga posture, the woman depicted traverses a gamut of moods and states that segue from blithe spirit to motherhood to serene yogini.

‘Raga Desh is an all-time favourite’, says Vidya. ‘Many of my works proceed from the kaleidoscope of images generated by its sublime beauty’. In a work where grace and sensuousness are also underscored by purity and innocence, Padmini, described in the Samudrika Sastra as the perfect woman, rises from a swirl of water.

While a blend of rich wine and brown shades defining her body symbolizes her passionate involvement in her creativity, the white lotus of peace denotes her brain, a repository of calm, wisdom and healing. The lotus on the right thigh stands for the cosmic tala even as the tambura and cymbals interwoven with the figure embody the cosmic raga.

Capturing the allegory

“In the Kumarasambhavam, Kalidasa’s verses describe Goddess Parvathy’s surpassing beauty,” says Vidya. Illustrating the master poet’s allegory, the woman’s shiras (head) is a dew -wet white lotus held up by a slender drooping stalk, from which a single dew drop sliding down her forehead, face and neck is poised on the verge of falling to her navel.

Fire, earth and air elements coalesce in an interesting juxtaposition of colours in a canvas wherein a warm crimson-orange background above meets a vibrant blue-green stretch below. Suspended in between, her arms outstretched in joyous abandon, the woman, an unfettered spirit, swings on a lotus vine, her lower limbs fanning out into a mermaid’s tail.

Vidya’s version of the mother and child theme takes the form of woman as Earth Mother, protector and nurturing force, nursing her child, the infant blue Krishna, curled up within her warm protective embrace, nourished by her unconditional, fathomless love. The meditative mood is captured in pastel aqua hues, with the woman sitting cross-legged and kneeling in profile. In perfect harmony with Nature, her mind, body and spirit reflecting a state of being that radiates an all-pervasive calm, the woman communicates a sense of oneness with the Universe in an oeuvre that glows with inner luminosity.

Vidya’s works from the Raga series include her interpretations of Marwa, Kedar, Mian ki Malhar, Maru Behag, Chandrakauns and Bagesri. The song of Krishna runs through the symphony linking flute, champaka flower in full bloom and moon in a visual exposition of the oft-heard ‘Alaipayuthe’ (Raga Kanada).

In conveying that an empathetic soul transcending externals, can divine the true beauty within every woman, connect to her intellect and find refuge in her compassion, the artist succeeds admirably.

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