HYDERABAD: The art maestros find watercolour one of the toughest mediums to work with as the same is extremely malleable which requires meticulous handling.
Thanks to William Reeves, who invented watercolours in 1780. From then onwards there’s no looking back. Artists across the globe have have used this delicate yet tough medium to let their thoughts and mental landscapes flow in. It’s not often that we see watercolours exhibited in the City of Pearls.
That’s how paintings done in watercolours were put as part of a group exhibition at State Gallery of Fine Art. The contributing artists are: Winson AC, Gaurishankar, TV Rao, Kishore Ghosh, Sreenivasa Ram, Amit Dewhare, Sudip Das and Simon Mitra. The exhibition of the 52 paintings will be on till May 12.
What was the most eye-catching in the exhibition was how rain was captured in the different canvases of Kishore Ghosh. He used thick grey, white and coal-blue shades for his works. In one of the paintings he used a cyclist paddling his way home as the protruding tent of a water-filled sky presses down on him. The dark clouds eager to cover every inch of the earth. The sheen on the road reflects that romance the sky wants to have with the earth.
And this romance continues in another canvas where one sees the head of a temple rising to the sky, then the front part of it is covered in tall grass swaying on the tune of mad rain -- in its madness everything becomes like glass washed away with a clarity not seen often in watercolours. The artist did justice to the theme he chose.
Coffee as an art medium has been quite interesting a topic both for the reviewers and the artists. Artist Amit Dewhare has created several landscapes with the brown sepia shades capturing still life of rural areas.
In one of the works, which has photograph like fine finesse in terms of composition. In one of the opuses, one gets to see backside of a country side cottage, its solitude enhanced by the sepia tones. In the watercolours of Winson one can’t help but notice the Royal Bengal Tiger in its various forms that terrorises all.
At the same time his other canvases are dominated by lush-green jungle scenes, surprisingly calm for being a forest. In one of his works one sees a shepherd leading a herd of animals while the emerald treetops shelter him. The brush strokes are fine and the colours mingle well with the layers.
In another painting of his one notices the beams of sunlight falling on the forest-floor suddenly illuminated a patch of the ground. The overall look offers calmness that comes from the harmony of shades.