A surreal take on the world
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bold brush strokes and colourful potrayal of life makes the paintings by two award winning artists, which have been put on display at the Kerala Lalithakala Academy Art Gallery in the capital city, refreshing. What adds to the awesomeness is that the painters- Mohan Varma and R Jayaprakash- have overcome their limitation in speech and hearing to pursue their life’s big dream. They have presented the world from their perspective through real and surreal works in oil, acrylic, water colour, paper collage etc.
The exhibition ‘Shades of Silence’ is being organised by IT company Allianz Cornhill Information Services. The artists will hold their next exhibition at Technopark on December 5.
73-year-old Mohan Varma is a familiar figure in the art circle in the city. After retiring from Bhasha Institute, in 2000 Varma began painting full-time. Cocooned in his world of silence, he has produced impressive art in various mediums. He is a master in paper collage. His paper collage of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, a rustic lady with a kid etc show this mastery.
All the frames that hold his art are designed by Varma himself. Hailing from Thrissur, he showed interest in clay modelling and was self-taught. He went on to make life size models which eased his path to Trivandrum Fine Arts College. He secured a first class in BFA. He joined the Kerala State Institute of Languages as artist in 1975. His works in water colour and oil adorn both the cover and inside pages of more than 500 publications brought out by the institute. In 1996 he was honoured with the best differently-abled employee award instituted by the state government.
Artist R Jayaprakash, who began drawing at a tendre age of five, received the National award for the welfare of the handicapped from former President Shankar Dayal Sharma in 1995. Two years before that he won the state award for the most efficient differently-abled employee. An art teacher at the Government Girls High School, Manacaud, Jayaprakash’s expert brush strokes command respect and the layers he painstakingly creates are amazing. The artist, who hails from Kottarakara, has a great hand and the use of colour is exquisite.
The warmth and colour in his piece stand out and reflect his optimistic spirit. Jayaprakash has painted figures, landscapes, still life etc in watercolours, oils, pastels and acrylics. His grasp of line, form and colour tones was something exceptional.