Art from the heart

Self-taught artist Bindu on what inspires her creativity

Bindu with some of her paintings

Bindu finds perfection in imperfection. “I see the work of other amateur artists and I think to myself that my handiwork is far below par. Yet, in knowing that my paintings are imperfect, I find perfection,” she explains. Bindu, a self-taught artist, is holding an exhibition of paintings, ‘Imperfection,’ at the Museum Auditorium .

“I was keen on art right from childhood onwards. However, family circumstances prevented me from learning it. It was when I was 11 years old that I first put watercolour to canvas after watching my sister’s friend Valsala painting one summer vacation. By the time I was in college [All Saints’] I had won several prizes for my paintings,” says Bindu, who after a long gap post marriage, took up art once again, prompted by her journalist-daughter. Her first exhibition of paintings was in 2013. “I was bowled over by the response even though I didn’t stick around to meet the visitors!” she says with a laugh. “I am an introvert and don’t like to be in the spotlight,” she explains.

Bindu has displayed 23 of acrylics on canvas (and one on paper) at the exhibition. Prominent among them are landscapes, particularly of trees, real and imaginary, in full bloom, painted in muted shades, again real and surreal, that please the eye.

“I love painting landscapes. It may be an actual landscape, an imaginary one, those that I come across in magazines or even while watching movies,” she says, pointing to one of a wagon, trundling along a tree-lined country road. “This one is inspired by the last scene of the period flick

Impromptu ,” she says.

Several of her paintings have also been inspired the sights in and near Columbus, Ohio, where her son lives, captured in the mind’s eye when she visited him and his family a few years ago. There are paintings of American suburbia, the country’s lavish scenery, flamingos in Columbus’ zoo and the likes. “Actually, I am inspired by anything and everything, whatever captures my heart. My daughter gave me a picture of the Buddha, which I have interpreted on canvas. I thought of my little niece and I decided to capture the youthful innocence of the Amul baby on canvas, there is one of Bhakta Meera because I love the symbolism. The image of two men on a camel vast expanse of the desert struck me when I watched the film Arabiyum Ottakavum P. Madhavan Nairum ,” she says.

The exhibition concludes on March 9, 10 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.