BENGALURU: As a student of architecture, the concept of art and design fascinated Parbboni. She would spend most of her free time exploring Adobe Photoshop as a junior architect.
At the age of 31, the architect is now a full-fledged artist. “Apart from my bachelor’s degree in architecture, I’m largely a self-taught person. I gained a lot of insight into the classical style of art and design during my 5 years of study,” says Parbboni, who is originally from Ranchi, but has been in Bengaluru for the last 13 years.
She would spend most of her time as a graphic designer and paint to unwind initially. “The routine continued until I realized I wasn’t getting enough time to paint. I wanted to experiment with different styles and learn new techniques, and so I chose to freelance as a designer while spending the bulk of my time watching videos and studying classical art by industry veterans,” she says.
Fairies and Mona Lisa
As a child, Parbboni was obsessed with Hamlyn’s “Giant book of Fairy Tales”, which was a gift from her father after he returned from a trip to the US. “I was always glued to the illustrations in the book, and tried my best to reproduce them with crayons,” she says.
When she grew older, “The Mona Lisa” caught her eye. “I was smitten by the beauty of Da Vinci’s paintings, and bought my first book on his works with my pocket money as a schoolkid. Even as a college student, I continued to stay awed by all the Renaissance artists and their styles,” she says.
Her current collection “Under a Spell” features a series of paintings of her favourite muse - horses. The animal lover says that the paintings feature the animal in both a realistic and an abstract way. “In the realistic set, I have captured the horses’ beauty and expressions in great detail. In the abstract, I focused on making the work extremely colourful and energetic, with dynamic palette knife strokes inspired by the horses’ energies,” she says.
Polar Opposites in a Person
The collection reveals a mysterious connect between realism and abstraction of any subject, she says. “We all have two sides to us - serene and wild - and we choose to reveal one aspect more than the other. My collection was started with the intent to explore these two different facets,” she adds.
To Parbboni, this collection is about imbibing the horses’ buoyant energy while appreciating their calm, sensitive and focused minds.
Snap this Art
Check out Parbboni’s series “Under the Spell” on horses in the city. The paintings aim to capture the free and wild spirit of the horses in myriad colours and strokes.
When: Until May 27, (Monday - Saturday from 11 am - 8 pm)
Where: Sublime Galleria, UB City