The luminescence in the painting will just grab you. The white light filling the room with a staircase on one side, the study on the other side seems like photograph with a source of light behind it. There isn't, and it is a painting not a photograph. Try to walk past the gallery at Taj Krishna where Shrikant Kolhe's works are on display and you will stop in your tracks. Is it real? With acrylics and charcoal on canvas, Shrikant uses his perfect draughtsmanship to play with perspectives using black, white and a hint of yellow. The red dot on a cube sets off the contrast in few paintings.
The paintings are meant to be experienced not explained. “It happened some twenty years back that I saw sunlight flitting into the house between a half open door. Every since that day I have pursued the subject. The style has changed but the pursuit has been constant. Earlier I was doing it with oil on canvas, I used various colours but this time I wanted to keep it elemental,” says Shrikant who sees light as a creative force as the force that keeps us alive.
Then what is the Rubik's cube with a red square? “Well it is the puzzle that we all have to solve if we are to stay alive. We try to solve and appear close to solving it when the puzzle gets changed,” says Shrikant philosophically.
At the heart of it, it is just a still life but Shrikant imbues it with a quality of life throwing in juicy tit-bits that keep your attention. The hanging focussing lamp is the constant, the staircase, the books and cartons, the study table and other elements of domesticity move about in no particular order.
