‘I paint not with my hands but with my heart and soul’

Paresh Maity on his 40-year journey as an artist, love for watercolours and influences on his work

January 30, 2017 12:57 am | Updated 07:35 am IST - NEW DELHI

: Standing in front of one of his earliest works, a watercolour painting depicting life by the banks of a river painted when he was in Class VIII, artist Paresh Maity reminisces about his 40-year journey as a watercolourist as if it happened only yesterday. “I come from a very humble background with no financial support. All I could afford then were pages from my notebook and a few colours. Since then, I have given my life to watercolours and have developed a deep-rooted passion for it,” says the artist with a hint of nostalgia and a lot of humility.

Expanding horizons

Maity’s journey from rural Bengal to being a celebrated artist known to make a splash at art auctions across the world is portrayed though his works that fill the walls at the Art Gallery, Lalit Kala Akademi, in a show titled ‘World of Watercolours’. A walk around the exhibition shows the artist’s dedication to his preferred medium despite proving his versatility at oils on canvas, sculpture, installation art and photography. Visitors can see for themselves how travel and new experiences have had an impact on Maity’s works over the years.

The fluidity of his water bodies, his most loved motif — boats, and the play with light and shade exist in all his works. The signature at the corner of every painting shows when the work was done. And as the years progress, his colours go from earthy natural tones to surrealistic reds, green, blue and yellow in much larger frames. “Earlier, the rivers, canals, ponds and other water bodies in Bengal were my world and were what I painted. It is only when I stepped out and visited Rajasthan in 1989-90 that I was exposed to vibrant colours and their hypnotic influence. Since then, the lush green of Kerala, reds of China, nightscapes of Benaras and hues from Venice, London and other places that I visited have expanded my horizon and taken me to a space beyond my imagination,” Maity says.

 

On why he likes to paint water bodies, Maity says ancient civilisations and great cities have all been surrounded by water as it was their lifeline and will continue to be so in the future. He adds that he is working on a large artwork to show the “water crisis” the next generation is going to face and that will send a message on the need to save and preserve water bodies.

Difficult medium

Maity is one of the few artists who has chosen to master watercolours throughout his career. He says that water colour on paper is the most difficult medium in painting because there is no rectification midway... either you succeed or you fail. He feels that there are also huge limitations as you cannot use the white pigment and have to rely on the colour of the paper as a source of light.

“The size of the paper is also limited. In this exhibition, I am showcasing some of the biggest watercolours ever created with paper that is not available in India so it is specially made for me in France and Italy,” says the artist, who has recently started creating mammoth paintings. Maity feels that to master the medium, you have to give your life to watercolours. “I cant explain how difficult it is. You need a deep-rooted passion to stick to watercolours, to dig deeper and achieve better results.”

Explaining his process, Maity says that ever since he was seven-years-old he wanted to be an artist. To create the best of art is his passion, he says. “When I paint I paint for myself. I forget everything else and become a child. I see, I absorb, I cook it in my system and then I vomit it out as my creation. I don’t paint with my hands but with my heart, soul and brain.”

Offering a tip to upcoming artists, Maity says “The biggest thing they have do is spend a lot of time... the more you work, the better you become... they must learn to paint from the heart.”

 

Book release

Sunaina Anand of Art Alive Gallery, the curator of the show, said the exhibition coincides with the release of a book ‘Paresh Maity: World of Watercolors’, which documents watercolours since the artist’s early age and covers the subject span from his home town Tamluk and other parts of India and abroad. She adds that “Maity seems to derive an almost moral benefit from this material challenge, confidently facing the possibility of failure and searching for life in every detail . ”

The book, which was launched by former cricketer Kapil Dev on January 27, has articles by art critics from across the world, a foreword by Gulzar and a message from the President of India. The show is on at Lalit Kala Akademi and will move to Art Alive Gallery on February 20. It will end on March 31.

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