There is no right time to be an artist. You can pick up paints and brush whenever you feel inspired. Deepshika Mammen is an example. She painted in school like other kids but didn’t realise her calling until she was in Melbourne post-marriage. One fine day, she started to paint again.
“The atmosphere was vibrant. My husband was encouraging,” says the artist. Back in India, a couple of years later, the self-taught artist is having her first solo “Wet Paint II” at Gallery g.
Her abstract minimalistic acrylic-laden canvases are reminiscent of Mark Rothko. She doesn’t exactly make rectangles stacked on top of one another like but there floats a rectangle nevertheless. “Every artist has a vision that he/she expresses, which might be invisible to others.
How the paintings are viewed and what one sees and interprets is an exciting part of being an abstract artist - that everyone has their own unique interpretation,” says the Bengaluru-based artist.
The budding painter says besides Mark Rothko, her mother Renu D. Singh, a prolific painter, was also an inspiration. She states, “Colours are what keeps my creative process going and they are the primary motivation behind my art. They are beautiful even in a jar.”
Layers and layers of deep rich colours can suck the viewer in into a world of silence. Is the process as meditative for the artist?
“Yes, it is, which is why I don’t paint when I am in a difficult situation. I need to be calm and that frame of mind that when I paint, the right kind of energy gets absorbed and conveyed.”
Describing Deepshikha’s works as a collision of paint, sweat, passion and love on canvas, Gitanjali Maini, Founder, gallery g says, “In the series of new works, Deepshikha’s paintings are just apt, they come from the heart. Her paintings take weeks to make and go through many processes in the hopeful pursuit of something magical. She has been selling her artwork online and by word-of-mouth but this is her first exhibit; it’s a privilege to introduce such artists.”
(The exhibition will be held at Gallery g, Lavelle Road From September 28 – October 12)
