Artist Sathi Shanker prefers to see her works as her ‘contribution to the world.’ Remuneration comes a distant second.
Sathi, a retired art teacher from Mahe, has organised 10 solo painting exhibitions, including the one which got off at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery on Thursday.
Watercolour is the medium she is most comfortable with, in which she has developed a unique style she calls ‘wash painting’. The paintings, mostly landscapes, are given a light wash, and have a misty look that gives them an ethereal feel.
Mural art tooFor the last two years, the artist, fondly referred to as ‘Sathi teacher’ by art enthusiasts, has been trying mural painting as well. Though she has been handling water and oil colours, murals were not easy in the beginning. However, she feels watercolour is more difficult to master than murals. “To do a good watercolour, you need to train your eye before your hands,” she adds.
She has been doing murals at houses and has decorated many schools with her fairy tale paintings. She currently runs Mahe School of Arts, a subsidiary of Pondicherry School of Arts in Mahe. The exhibition, which features around 30 paintings, will conclude on March 23.