While monsoons continue to play hide-and-seek with us, an assortment of colour-soaked watercolours evoking its spirit, as if praying for it to come soon and in abundance, will be soon mounted in a group show at Art Perspective gallery in Lado Sarai, New Delhi. Suruchi Saraf of recently opened Art Perspective has gathered artists from different parts of the country who have been working in the medium.
An exhibition of watercolours generates curiosity. Simply because we don’t get to see them so often — at least not such full-fledged shows dedicated to the medium. As Bangalore-based artist Prabal Mallick, who is participating in the show, says, watercolours aren’t even considered mainstream practice because that space is ruled by oils and acrylics. But is that a deterrent for somebody who paints for himself and not for the market? Once upon a time, Mallick too was in love with oils and one day he stopped painting. Four years ago, he got a calling again but this time he took to watercolours. A watercolourist since then, he swears by the impact the medium has not just on the viewer but even the artist himself. “It’s kind of seductive… I had to unlearn a lot of things about painting because I was doing oils all this while. I had to learn when to control it and when not to control it,” explains Mallick, who likes to do en plein air. His six paintings to be exhibited at the show include three landscapes and a set of three other works.
Mumbai-based senior artist Prafull Sawant also laments the fact that watercolours don’t enjoy as much popularity as oils and acrylics. Having recently been awarded by Washington-based Northwest Watercolour Society, Sawant says the medium is tougher than others. “It’s about control and speed and you have to work within these limitations. Though I do oils also, every year I try to get out of the city and go to a different place and paint outdoors. And those are usually watercolours. These works have come out of my Chittor trip. The luminosity and fluidity is difficult to achieve anywhere else.”
Mumbai-based Vasudeo Kamath is another one who is fascinated by the medium, and though he works with oils his love for watercolours hasn’t diminished one bit. Kamath portrays India’s ancient heritage by recreating the magic of dohas, abhangs and Marathi poetry by saints like Kabir, Tulsidas, Narsimh Mehta and Jana Bai.
Other participating artists are Vikrant Shitole, Vinayak Deshmukh, Ramesh Jhawar, Amit Kapoor, Sikander Singh, Anjani Reddy, Anurag Mehta, Raktim Chatterjee, Sanjay Kamble, Sachin Naik, Biju Mathew and Rajesh Sawant.
(The show will be on at Art Perspective, Lado Sarai, from July 12 till August 15, 2012.)
