KOCHI: At first, the figures seem bizarre but when you continue to gaze at her work, you will see the bigger picture in those charcoal works which holds a deeper meaning.
“They are characters we meet in everyday life,” says Babitha Rajiv, a self-taught artist from Fort Kochi. ‘Therefore I am,’ the painting exhibition by Babitha at Durbar Hall Art Gallery, focuses on different aspects of life.
“The paintings are about different people and their everyday life. Some are about soldiers and they situations they face, while other painting depicts the circumstances faced by a woman in her mid-30s. One particular painting speaks about truth. There is a always something beyond that what we see. It’s like a story that every person, viewing it, would feel connected to,” says Babitha.
The 38 paintings exhibited at the gallery are not a part of a series but Babitha worked on them individually over a span of one year. “These paintings became a series when I put them up here. I worked on almost 110 painting in the last one year but I had to pick some among them to put them here on display,” says the artist.
The paintings includes charcoal, pencil and also dry pastels works.
It’s only three years since Babitha decided to take up art seriously and work for it. “I used to visit Biennale and always had an interest for art but it’s only after I got married that I studied fine arts and wanted to pursue in this field,” says Babitha.
Babitha would help her friend with illustration for advertisement storyboards but she never in her wildest dreams imagined taking up art as her profession.
“From my childhood I drew like every other child but I always had the desire to study fine arts. But our society is such that we tend to think as what a person will do for their profession after they study art. Well some how things worked out for me. Call it luck or destiny,” says the artist.
Like it’s said behind every man’s success there’s a woman. For Babitha, its her husband who is also her powerhouse and the man behind her success. “My husband who is also my best friend is the man behind the scenes, to whom I owe my success too. He is very patient and an art-lover himself. He appreciates art and artists,” says Babitha.
Ask her how much will she charge the buyer who shows interest in her work and she says, “I let the buyer quote the price. I don’t like fixing a price for my own work, it doesn’t seem right to me. I usually sell my work at whatever price the buyer quotes.”
According to Babitha, our society has not yet grown to appreciate art like it is in the West. The sales of paintings in Kerala are not as much as it is in other cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi or Kolkatta.
Babitha says that Kerala is just learning the concept of purchasing art works. “Most visitors for my exhibition are foreigners and Indian who’ve settled abroad. They buy my work to put up in their homes. I believe I haven’t grown as an artist to sell my work to hoteliers and connoisseurs of art. Moreover my work is contemporary and that is not what most hotels are looking for,” she adds.
When asked about her personal experience of being a part of the art world, she says, “Initially I was afraid to call myself an artist because it is like a responsibility. The artists’ society is not like the normal one. Freedom is like religion for them. Artists don’t discriminate each other on the basis of caste, colour, creed, experience and nationality.
"We discuss topics that is otherwise considered as a taboo openly, share opinions and nobody judges you. The most important factor is that we are accept each other as we are and not on the basis of what we’ve achieved. It’s a different altogether.”
Babitha adores Salvador Dali, a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter. “His works are out of the world. There are so many elements in his paintings it takes a while for one to figure out what exactly his works is all about,” Babitha signs off.