ABOUT MY PAINTINGS
| Dhar. A small town, about 40 kilometres from Indore, surrounded by hills. I spent my childhood there. Climbing and running on the top of the hills, particularly "Khanderao's Tekadi," was an exhilarating experience for me as a child.I wandered through the villages of Malwa, where men, women and children decorate their huts with cowdung. |
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The walls of the hut are smoothened with a thin mixt~re of cowdung and water, and then, with a thicker mixture of cowdung, motifs are made. Sometimes silver foil from empty cigarette packets and flowers of different colour are stuck on these three-dimensional motifs. These motifs that adorn the dwellings of these villages are not religious symbols nor are they part of any ritual; they are a celebration of life. Now that I think back, this was probably the first "art" which I found beautiful and that really moved me. | |
| In my early works, the influence of M.F. Hussain's rugged, simple and very strong lines was evident. Bright colours fascinated me. After acquiring a diploma in fine arts, I joined M.S. University, Baroda, for further studies under the guidance of the late Professor N.S. Bendre. It was he who helped me to get out of "Hussainism."For reasons unknown to me I subsequently began painting very morbid themes - large canvases like "Death of the Unknown" and "Fear of the Unknown," which were highly appreciated by my colleagues and art critics. |
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While I was going through this very depressed phase, I was introduced to Shri Acharya Rajneesh. I attended many of his discourses and yoga sessions. And something beautiful happened to me. I noticed a dramatic change in myself. The morbidity disappeared from my canvases. Soon after I visited Nepal. I wandered in the Himalayas for a couple of months. This gave me a feeling of tranquility. | |
| I started painting mountains. Blue mountains, green mountains, brown mountains. A clear blue sky. Lush green foreground. But with the passing of time the sky became only empty space, the mountains became simple triangles floating in space. And since they were no longer mountains but only forms,earlier colour restraints also disappeared. Now the mountains could be red, black or any other colour. The bright colours were back again. The colours of Malwa. |
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With the birth of my daughter, fairies descended on these mountains. For a while the imagery changed but the colours remained as bright as ever. But as time flew past, so did the fairies. Soon my daughter wasn't interested in fairy-tales any more. Once again I was on my own. I was back with the basic shapes of triangles and circles. But my triangles, circles and colours are not symbols. Nor are they rituals. My canvases too are a celebration of life. | |
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