“In the work titled On the Rocks, I have recreated the never-ending road on the way to a glacier from Reykjavík in Iceland. It was a family holiday. Even the memories of that experience retain the sub-zero temperature, which I have tried to bring out with the usage of white and mist,” says artist Roohi Kapoor, whose first solo show titled Flights of Fancy will be held in Delhi. The 56 acrylics-on-canvas are inspired from her travels. “From waterfalls in the Amazon to the jungles of the Himalayas to the frozen beaches in Iceland, ancient temples and structures in Egypt, the body of work is an ode to the natural and man-made wonders on the earth,” adds the 33-year-old.
In a piece titled Fushimi Inari that is a splash of orange and shades of the same family, she has tried to portray this shrine in Kyoto, Japan. “We walked through a total of 1000 tori gates to reach the shrine on the top of the hill. I would compare it with something like walking up to Vaishno Devi.
For all the works, I have worked with a palette knife on large and small canvases. Most are landscapes where I’ve used generous thick dabs of paint, which end up in textures, natural shapes and forms. Other favourites from the collection are Concentric, Blossom, Harmony, Chelsea and Koi,” adds, Kapoor, who has done Fine Art Foundation Course from UCL Slade School of Fine Art in London.
She has used Pthalo and iridescent blues in a lot of works in this collection. There are also whites, pastels and fluorescent shades. “I have used these vibrant shades to make the works glow and highlight areas in order to make them pop just a bit. I have also experimented with heavily contrasting palettes using blacks, deep blues with metallic silver,” adds the full-time artist, who is a certified graphic designer.
Interested in the field of art restoration, she has also done an intensive course on the subject from Delhi’s National Museum. It was a box of paints that the six-year-old Kapoor had found in her house, which led her to the world of art. “I used to paint the walls of our driveway with them. And I’ve been hooked ever since. But my favourite medium is acrylics because it’s versatile. One can use them like oils as well as water colours. Moreover, they dry very quickly.”
She considers her art to be a window to her soul wherein she encapsulates all experiences from life, travel, relationships and articulates them on my canvas. On: February 6-9At: Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Delhi