The art fraternity is familiar with the fact that an exhibition of paintings mounted by Bala Bhakta Raju around this time of the year will focus on the artist's representation of the elephant God in his various avatars. At the sparkling Seasons Lounge, Taj Krishna, when light plays hide and seek on a cloudy morning, expatriate guests pause to take a closer look at the exhibition of paintings. The artist who has been painting Ganeshas for a decade now, wants to paint one lakh Ganeshas in the long run. On display this time are many moods and colours of Ganesha, mostly mixed media on canvas, interspersed with a few works in charcoal on paper and water colour on paper. “Ganesha has always been my inspiration, ever since I started painting. Though I have painted varied faces of the Lord — from meditative to contemplative, playful to aggressive — I always find newer possibilities to portray different moods of Ganesha,” explains Bala Bhakta Raju. The endearing Bal Ganesh feasts on laddus and modaks while a pensive Ganesha looks meditatively at the Shiva ling. The exhibition is on till September 15.
