For artist George Fernandez, Nature is his muse and guru. His home, aptly called Eden, has a lush, overgrown garden. For years, his garden has been his inspiration with all its flora and fauna. “I would wake up to birds chirping, as my garden was filled with sunbirds, kingfishers, mynas, cuckoos, Indian koels and shikras. With a wide variety of fruit trees and flowers, there would also be butterflies in rainbow colours,” says George, who has taken up his paintbrush many a time to capture the vibrant colours of Nature.
An installation by George Fernandez
However, with trees felled in the name of urbanisation and road-widening, his friends such as the birds and the butterflies rarely pay him a visit these days.
While George’s works in the past have nearly always portrayed Nature at her best, his latest collection, ‘Serenity versus Terror- Part II’, done in mixed media, draws one’s attention to his underlying theme – the collision of man and nature.
While the Serenity series has landscapes done in Chinese brush strokes and delicate shades using water colours, those representing Terror, a mix of installations and paintings, are harsh on the eye. The Serenity series, says George, represent Nature of yesterday and that of “Nature that can be in the future”.
An installation by George Fernandez
Those in the Terror series are of our pillage and abuse of Nature. According to George, most of the material used for the installations are made from “natural materials such as wool, clay and mud.”
George says, he hopes that his exhibition will make man stop and ponder about the way we pollute, exploit, kill and destroy what Mother Earth has given us. Apart from works that will “have one think”, George has also stuck up messages such as ‘Man has no respect for Mother Earth’, ‘If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere’ and ‘We were born to love the world and not destroy it’.
“I have children from schools such as Holy Angels, Carmel and Chinmaya Vidyalaya visiting the exhibition. The youth of today seem keener on a greener tomorrow,” says George, who feels engaging the youth in environmental protection not only creates a direct impact on changing youth behaviours and attitudes, but perhaps in influencing their parents, relatives and families as well.
A painting by George Fernandez
‘Serenity versus Terror- Part II’ is held at Lenin Balavadi, Vazhuthacaud. The exhibition, which concludes today, was organised by Tree Walk Trivandrum and Lenin Balavadi to mark World Environment Day.
