THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One facet of artist G N Madhu’s works is that they are relatively pleasant; there are no chaos on the canvas. The reason, Madhu says, is that most people love to view landscapes in a positive way.
Be it the serene lotus ponds (fast fading into oblivion thanks to polluted waterbodies) or the tranquil backwaters and canoe amidst it, the works of Madhu, titled ‘Tranquility’, relive the ages when nature was still pristine.
The expo that will conclude today evening at Durbar Hall Art Gallery reflects its title every way.
“When I conducted an exhibition at Kottayam, I felt that most people cherished the images of nature in its beauty. Though as an artist I would like to show my angst at the way our nature is being plundered, I thought I should work on the tranquil face of nature. The collection is borne from that thought,” says the artist, who worked as an interior designer at UAE for the past 15 years before moving back to Kerala. The paintings done in watercolour capture nature in its most realistic form. “There is a subtle play of light and shade. It may reflect photographs in a manner, but through certain creative compositions I have given it a bit of surrealism too,” says the artist.
His prolonged life abroad seems to have prompted the artist to hold dear his homeland, which is reflected in works that depict a naive young girl turning to glorious sky and in hillocks.
“The element of Kerala is very much there. It is evident in my works of lotus ponds and ‘shankupushpam’ flowers. The irony is that as much as people adore these images, they are no where to be seen,” says Madhu, who graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram.
Madhu has travelled to many places and worked with many artists to explore the essence of art and new grounds of designing.