For 82-year-old PS Padmini, an artwork is like wine. As years pass, it attains a deeper meaning upon reflection, evoking a whirlwind of memories, nostalgia and vivid recollections of the time spent meticulously perfecting a piece. It’s no surprise that the oldest work, a framed craftwork depicting two reflective swans that in essence resembles a painting, in her ongoing exhibition-cum-sale of paintings and craft at the Museum Auditorium is perhaps over 50 years old. “If I remember correctly, this one was done even before my son was born,” says Padmini.
The sheer diversity of style, themes and media perhaps justifies the rather direct and compendious title, Exhibition of Painting and Crafts. If murals, water colours, Tanjore style, oil, acrylic, epoxy and the tribal art of rice paste-based Warli painting that has its origins in Maharashtra bring out the range of media Padmini experiments with for her vibrant brush-strokes, her ‘coffee paintings’ — portraits of Rabindranath Tagore, Buddha and Jesus Christ — add a dash of uniqueness to the collection that comprises over 100 paintings. “Coffee powder is diluted proportionately and used as paint for the drawing. The paper is then optimally sun-dried to retain the pattern,” she explains about the method.
An avid knitter, Padmini says she has been interested in needlework right from a young age and her craftwork on display showcases intricate decorative crochet works of tiny woollen dolls and trinkets apart from stuffed toys, ornamental candles, paper bags, button work, pot painting, bead works and so on.
Her dexterity is most striking in some of the “fusion works” that organically amalgamates painting and craft. For instance, a framed piece depicting a butterfly is intricately created out of broken glass pieces, the shards reflecting the pattern of wings in a prismatic palette. Or a girl in a flowing garb striking a dancing pose is adroitly made out of snipped ear buds.
Padmini, who retired as coordinator, UNICEF, State Institute of Education, in 1996 says that as a child, she used to keenly observe and learn from her father who was “an expert sculptor”. Even today, not a single day passes without her wielding her brush, she says. Age is never a bar for Padmini.
The exhibition is on at the Museum Auditorium till July 14. Time: 10 am to 6 pm.
