For Soundarya Hegde, it is a dream come true when she made her debut as an artist with “Thoughts in colours”, an exhibition of her paintings, in Mangalore. Unlike other full time painters, painting is a hobby for her, she has been painting since she was a child, but she never thought that one day she would host her painting exhibition.
At the exhibition, which concluded on Monday, She had put up 35 paintings on display. She used water colours, oil paints, Indian ink, charcoal and acrylic on canvas. Of the 35, four were done in charcoal, three in Indian ink and two were oil paintings with knife work.
She started her collection for the exhibition with a charcoal painting of Lord Ganesha. But each canvas had a different story to tell. She painted landscapes, Tibetan monks, cock fight, Meera bai, traditional temple to name a few. Most of her paintings are bright and lively, she said: “I don't like gloomy paintings, I like them full of life.” She has used shades of yellow, green, blue, brown and orange.
One of her painting depicts an African tribal family — husband, wife, a young child and newly born baby. The baby is draped in bright orange and the backdrop of the picture is done in bright orange symbolising the change brought into the family with the birth of a baby.
While another painting done in Indian ink has a young boy sitting in front of his house and admiring the beauty of his own house.
Out of all her paintings one that stands out from the rest is charcoal painting of a tribal woman standing with a brick wall as the back drop, the painting though has only shades of black and grey it speaks for the artist, Soundarya has made her mark.
She comes from a family of doctors, but went on to do her graduation in fashion designing, for a creative person like her it was a means of expressing herself. She worked for a year with fashion designer Vidya Sagar before tying the knot with Dr. Hegde.
She became a housewife and got busy with the nitty-gritty of life. But her husband and friends always encouraged her to continue with her hobby. She used to paint whenever she could. But it was two years ago that she thought of having her own painting exhibition.
From then on, there was no looking back. Talking about the arrangements she said, “For last two months I have worked rigorously to get things in place.” She said the exhibition would not have been possible without the support of her husband, who has been the best critic. She is planning to have her next exhibition in another six or eight months time.
