Figurative Work
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The years before the 90s saw me as a figurative artist, painting subjects varying from the 'Barbed' and 'Gulf War' series to a period of 'Serene Devotion,' from 'Simple domestic scenes' to those with a 'Deeper symbolic' meaning.
Newspaper articles sometimes urged me to paint
what I read. ‘Barbed’ was one such series, inspired by an
article on a young widow’s humiliation when she was
publically disrobed and beaten because she could not pay
rent to her landlord.
Business Standard art critic’s comments, ‘Creativity can
produce memorable canvases, which are not merely
aesthetically satisfying but also serious enough to
provoke the viewer to reflect over the human condition’
Strangely, many years later, the newspaper itself became a
part of my paintings as in ‘Playing with the Millennia’
series.
Though there was an undertone of revolt in my ‘War’ and
pathos in my ‘Barbed’ series, my ‘Porthole’ and
‘Millennia’ series are, by and large, joyous and
suggestive of jubilation
I had been painting vigorously for many years, but it was
not until 1990 that I seriously started exhibiting my
works. It happened when I first submitted my painting for
an Annual Exhibition in 1990. To my great delight, it got
selected. The painting was ‘Krishna Consciousness’ or ‘Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu’s Sankirtan’. This gave me a new impetus and
became a steppingstone for me. Thereafter there was no
looking back and I kept moving up the ladder.