The World through a porthole
--------------------
Having vastly travelled across oceans on merchant navy ships, accompanying my husband, who was a captain on cargo ships, I conceived the idea of painting the world through something as functional as a porthole.
The porthole became very significant to me - being the
only liberating link between the ship’s cabin and the
world outside, and to me the view beyond meant the flight
of the soul itself.
I studied the behaviour of the sea and the sky - their
various moods, in full fury and in tranquility, and
brought those years of my life spent at sea onto my
canvases. There were the standard sea-fearing sights to
surreal and inspired views of eclipses and chessboards,
the Milky Way with its masterful use of the wash technique
and many others. Paintings of the sky and sea were highly
spontaneous and came out of my heart rather than my mind.
Art critic R.T. Shahni of Free Press Journal, Mumbai wrote
- ‘A work of impeccable art with the play of light on the
horizon, the use of reds and yellows for the effect of the
setting sun, the carefree flying birds and a beautiful
cloudscape reminiscent of the work of Constable!’ And
again ------- ‘for this theme does not appear to have
featured on such a large scale either by the European or
our own innovative artists’. Times Group News Papers, UK
correspondent Hugh Christopher wrote - ‘Originality is the
key factor in the exhibitions-------’
Though my intense interest lay in the view beyond, I also
emphasised on the construct of the Porthole. I painted
every detail of the very old- almost antique Portholes to
the more modern ones. I have viewed innumerable marine
paintings of ships, the waterfront, marina and seascapes,
but none through a Porthole.
Not forgetting mans relationship with environment some of
my most dramatic paintings, now in private collections are
of a floating city on an iceberg. Having polluted cities,
mankind has to take refuge at sea. If man pollutes the
sea, then the iceberg will detonate and wipe out
civilisation. Another one, ‘Pollution at Sea’, where
beautiful colours of refracted light on oil spill, carry
with it the evil of polluting the sea.