It is easy to miss Sanskrithi, School of Interior Design, in Ravipuram, so cruise slowly and you will find the banner announcing ‘Sadhana'. The exhibition of paintings by students, past and present, are on show at Sanskrithi. It is on till February 10.
The paintings of various dimensions and sensibilities adorn the walls of the gallery. A brightly lit room done in a warm shade of ochre welcomes the visitor. The artists are amateurs but that doesn't show. The artists, all students of interior design, have expressed their creativity in different ways and have used different forms. The paintings are not limited to the canvas, there is pottery, fabric and some on the spot caricaturing too. The media used are diverse – water colours, oil, mixed media, Fuji colour etc.
Jayaprakash Narayan G. (JP) director of Sanskrithi elaborates, “The School completes 12 years this year and we thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the years gone by. And it just happened that we got 12 students to contribute.” Turning 12 is just one aspect of the show; it also has a larger purpose – creating awareness about global warming. In keeping with the theme, most of the paintings draw inspiration from the colours and forms of nature.
Besides JP's works, the other budding artists whose works are on show include Devika Ashok, Malini Ashok, Harshina Rasheed, Jaya Bhatia, Pratheeksha Prasad, Rabeka Rechana Paul, Rose Mary Hormise, Arun V.K., Arshad K., C. D. Dileep and A. Hariharan.
Dileep teaches mural paintings at Sanskrithi, while Devika and Malini are students of mural paintings. Dileep and Hariharan's murals are on show. While some of the murals stick to the traditional style, there is a modern interpretation of ‘Ardhanareeshwara'. Rebecca, an architecture student, is the youngest artist. Jaya Bhatia's mixed media paintings and pottery are on show. Jaya, who finished her interior design course last year, is a self-taught artist. She uses mixed media for her paintings and her pottery is quirky. For instance there is a long necked terracotta pot worked in such a way that it appears to sport a corset.
Arun's, a freelance interior designer, water colour paintings are a delight to look at, the fluidity of his brush and his keen eye for detail add to the pleasure. Arshad's miniature is relevant to the times and therefore talks about Mullaperiyar.
Prateeksha and Harshina are students of architecture, Rose Mary works for an interior design firm. Going by the quality of works and artistry it is difficult to tell that most of them are novices as far an art show goes. JP's works and a crayon drawing by his son, Keshav, are also on show. JP's works are minimalist (in terms of colours) paintings that show snapshots of sights in Kochi and Mattancherry.
As part of the show, films on ‘Environment Protection' (by Aranyam, Bangalore) will be screened at 11 a.m. ‘Wild Dog Diaries' and ‘Concert for India's Environment' are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
