Though Mohan S Jadhav has never been to Tamil Nadu in the past, his paintings vividly convey the Maattu Pongal fever of the State — coloured cows, their horns adorned with bells and velvets. These form a major part of his water colour exhibition ‘Cultural Colours’ at Vinnyasa Premier Art Gallery.
Though the similarity is striking, the Pune-based artist clarifies that the colourful bulls are part of the Maharashtrian Pola festival and not Pongal. “I have never been exposed to Tamil culture in the past. I was raised around Maharashtrian culture,” he says.
Both Pola and Pongal festivals are, however, celebrated during the harvest season, when the farmers are free from their work and in the mood for celebration, he explains.
As the belief goes, once decorated, the bull stands to represent lord Siva himself. “It is not just any regular bull, it is Nandi. When the bull is brought to our homes, it’s more like lord Siva coming in. And this inspired me to paint bulls,” he says.
For Jadhav, painting Nandi was just part of the theme he was working on. His idea was to capture the cultural activity in India. “Here, festivals are inclusive of animals like camels, bulls and elephants. So I have brought out the colours of culture through the colours on these animals during festivals,” he says.
His paintings include camels covered in bling as seen during the pushkar mela in Rajasthan, and elephants complete with golden aanapattam along their trunks during the poorams in Kerala.
But Jadhav, again, hasn’t visited any of these places. “I don’t even know which festival is celebrated with elephants, but I have seen them. And as far as camels are concerned, I have read so much about the pushkar mela and seen so many photos,” he says.
Arranging the bits of what he has read and seen, filling them with figments of his imagination, Jadhav tirelessly worked for months to get the exhibition out. “I did the sketches first. Then I had to think about the composition in the background. I had to decide whether to just draw the camel or also include a man sitting on top of it. I had to decide on the colours of the camel, of the decoration and the background colour, making sure that all these complement each other,” he says.
The exhibition is an attempt by Jadhav to revive the declining culture in the country. “Nowadays, decoration of bulls happens only in the villages. This culture is a lost property. People in cities are usually inquisitive about these paintings. Many have not even seen such a thing. But I tell them that it is nothing new. It is all in our tradition,” he says.
The exhibition is on at Vinnyasa Premier Art Gallery, Mylapore, till March 10.
