You just need to look around to find art, says award-winning artist K.S. Joseph. You realise his words are true as you view his works at Bhoomika, on at Kasthuri Sreenivasan Art Gallery.
Be it ‘Bargain’, which captures the hustle and bustle of a typical village sandhai or ‘Still Life’, depicting a tray with colourful fruits, his paintings speak of an artist who keenly observes the world around him. “You can see art even in empty tea cups,” he says.
A native of Kerala, Joseph says images of his home, etched in his mind, come to life when he picks the brush. The green farms, the pastures, women who harvest paddy…his canvases are all about snapshots of earthy rural landscapes.
Bright red and earthy brown hues, used in the painting of the Velichappadu, an oracle, catches your eye. His portrait of a woman in a green sari and blouse, sporting a light smile, won the gold medal for the ‘Best Realistic Painting’ from the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi.
In sharp contrast to these rural visuals, stand canvases depicting the urban landscape and fast pace of life — high-rise buildings and tarred roads bustling with vehicles.
His works celebrate light and shade. His acrylic work, ‘Nature’s Litter’, depicts a dusty path sprinkled with dry leaves. A shaft of light illuminates the foliage.
“Light and shade breathe life into a canvas,” says Joseph. “That is what transforms it into a painting from a mere sketch or a drawing.”
Crimson, reds, greens, yellows… his works are a riot of colours. A hint of purple adds magic to the painting of a village house and deserted street. In ‘Dawn Awakens’, the entire frame and background are bathed in pink. ‘The Evening Waves’ sees the beach engulfed in vermillion. An engineer by profession, Joseph dabbled in art from school.
“I instinctively liked art,” says the artist, who hates classifying his work to fit into genres. “I do not believe in calling a painting modern or classical. Whatever appeals to the eye is good art.”
The exhibition, 12th in the gallery’s Silver Jubilee series, features 37 paintings in oil and acrylic.
It is on till December 31, and is open from 9.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.
For details, call 0422-574110.
