Sketches and paintings used to lie on the floors at home,” recalls veteran artist Shobha Broota, who grew up surrounded by creativity thanks to her father, an architect, and her uncle, an artist. “I didn’t know what art was, but my environment was full of drawing and painting. Maybe it was in my genes. I got into the habit of looking and then doing whatever I wanted to do.”
For over 60 years, Broota has experimented with her work using different forms and mediums. Her latest paintings are currently on display at the exhibition, ‘Shobha Broota: Painting Infinity’, till October 18, at the DAG art gallery in Delhi.
Born in Delhi, the artist remembers picking up the pencil as early as four or five. Young Broota was encouraged by her school, which integrated sketching into the curriculum. By the time she was in high school, teachers had noticed Broota’s ability to draw effortlessly. “I could draw anything in front of me with accuracy. My teachers appreciated my work,” she tells TMS.
Finding newness
Broota started copying different objects — leaves, objects, and human figures — and sketched them on paper. But she soon realised that remaining confined to a single mode was limiting. “If you are given a pencil lifelong, what will happen?” she questions. “You get fed up. You can’t do the same thing all your life.” According to Broota, change is essential for any mind that wants to explore.
Every eight years or so, she would switch mediums for her art; at times, making fabric-based works, other times experimenting her celebrated flicking technique. “For me, it was like playing. I would get fed up with one medium, and then I would say, let me try something else. Change made me feel alive," the artist expresses.
While speaking about naming one of her art series as ‘Origin’, Broota says, “Initially, I used to give every painting a title. But if you are painting every day of your life, hundreds of works a year, how many words can you find? Finally, I stopped giving titles altogether. I thought, ‘let the viewer see from their own eyes, not from the artist’s eyes’.” And then, she began to put a number after the title — Origin 1, Origin 2, and so on — such that the interpretation would remain open-ended to viewers.
Her signature
In many of her works, Broota implements her signature flicking technique, created by snapping the bristles of a paintbrush so that paint scatters across the canvas in dotted patterns.
In one of the paintings titled, ‘Origin 48’, Broota paints a giant Sun-like object in the middle of canvas — its edges soft due to the speckled paint. A background created with smaller, orange spots has also been painted.
In her self-portrait, she paints a picture of herself, textured with thick oil paint strokes of blue, green, orange, red, and yellow in colour.
Art beyond surface reality
Broota says abstraction is a way to transcend surface reality. “Abstract art takes you beyond realism, whereas realism is just copying what you see,” she adds.
Speaking about the disparities in opportunities faced based on gender, she says, “Back then, boys were given more opportunities in everything—even in studies, girls were not always taught.” However, she adds, “But gradually, things have changed. Today there are so many women artists. Of course, in some areas of India, women may still face restrictions. That’s social. But in the art world, opportunities are open.”
To Broota, her artworks were “a process of learning, doing, enjoying”. She says she was not afraid of change, rather she enjoyed it. She emphasises that she has never feared change; she instead embraced it and found joy in it.
