CHENNAI : I dream of painting and then I paint my dream”. Words by Vincent Van Gogh appear in a bold white font on a blue background, above a sculpture of the artist. The eye-catching element of this set-up is the placement of sunflowers all around the canvas, the Art Edit Cafe, as an ode to the Dutch painter’s work. Touring the education room and the immersive experience room — getting transformed to the time the painting was created, feeling the emotions behind every stroke, understanding the choice and the purpose of colours used — art educators in the city gathered to live moments in a painting at the ongoing The Real Van Gogh – Immersive Experience at Express Avenue.
The idea behind assembling 25-odd artists for a workshop “is mainly to get the (art) community together to introduce this to different audiences,” says Jay Punjabi, partner of The Real Van Gogh Immersive Experience. Vijay Raghavan Srinivasan, a visual arts teacher, says, “From this immersive opportunity, students can learn Van Gogh’s texture qualities. It is a beautiful experience as these textures come closer to you and you can feel the vibe.”
A speaker at the workshop, Anjali Ponni, a portrait photographer and artist says, “Events like these give the budding artists human interaction. When they come here, you may not know what inspires them and they incorporate it in their art.” Sharing her learning from the exhibition, Anjali says, “It was lovely to see the scale and the movement. You usually see movements in his painting but to be seeing that in this kind of medium was fascinating. I am a digital artist and after today I will see how to bring more movement to my art. He used the same colour in different tones and that fascinated me.”
Van Gogh’s way of dealing with the canvas, capturing the mood, expression, and colour scheme used, gives way to an individual’s healing process. Explaining this, Vijay adds, “When you look at a painting the way it is hanging on a wall, the feeling and understanding are different. When technology such as three-dimension takes over, the healing process begins there.”
Using digital media to exhibit the painting adds to the experience. Kavya Avula, an art teacher at Rainbow Fish Studio, expresses, “When his work is displayed in a larger size and it gets closer to you, you get to notice the strokes and the colour variation.” Meanwhile, it was meditative for Vasuda Shenoy, an art teacher at Vidya Mandir. She shares, “I sat there and my mind was on the different canvases around me. The colours and strokes came to reality and it felt like we were entering his world.”
The artists present at the venue share that Van Gogh’s life is sad and that can be seen in his portraits; it is always like he is trying to figure out who he is for himself. He did not particularly enjoy his life, dedicated it to painting, and did not seek success, but now, he serves as an influential figure to today’s artistic audience and otherwise.