Priyanka Poogalia is a former corporate employee who has turned to art to express herself.
Her exhibition Indelible Impressions is a stark display of colours that define a woman.
Crimson for the vivacity that is her, blue for the depth of calm and patience she can be, brown for the rustic earthy mother she is and white for the white flag that she doesn’t mind putting up if it's in the interests of the general good.
Having worked for an NGO dedicated to women’s causes for two years, the artist’s developed sense compassion and feminine intuition is what makes up her women’s series.
Though she does use other colours, crimson red plays a dominant role.
“I used red to show the strong emotions of love, anger and power.
A woman has many sides to her.
She is extremely moody.” The canvases are done in charcoal and red paint, often contrasted with black paint.
There are women sitting in pensive thought, women being courted, women with their children, and others just sitting plain happy in the moment.
“We are a simple yet complicated species.
There is a feminine elegance yet a tempestuous side to us.
Our lives are a vicious circle of love, marriage and child bearing.
Yet in all of this, there is a quiet dignity to the female.
To portray this, I used the colour blue — serene and smooth, yet stormy and treacherous.” The most noticeable aspect of the paintings, besides the red colour, is the specific way Poogalia chooses to draw her women.
The typical Indian pear-shaped figures with an ample bosom and curvaceous hips, the face is a linear almond shape with doe-eyes.
A recurring background relief is also seen — a swan that accompanies the woman.
“I believe for a woman, her figure is the most important asset.
Which is why I have stressed on it in my series.” Exotic indeed, Poogalia gives a twist to the women series with an abstract piece of two people in conversation.
Other canvases in the collection show a tribal woman sleeping with her child by her side, and the other side of a woman’s face, the man.
Priced between `5000 to `15000, the paintings and artist can be reached at www.artfromheart.
com