HYDERABAD: Have you seen the erstwhile First Lady of the United States of America decked up in rustic silver jewellery of Telangana which matches the flowers adorning her pretty head? She’s wearing a bottu as well. In another frame, she’s this traditional lady of Lambada tribe, and then a Kashmiri village girl decked up in blooms and traditional trinkets.
In another set, the two Obama daughters pose as Radha and Krishna. No, this is not a photo shoot for a top glossy magazine. It’s someone’s imagination – an artist’s, who has brought Michelle Obama on the canvas as a rural woman of the state.
These are Narsimha Goud Rollu’s artworks which feature not just her but Barack Obama, the erstwhile President of the USA, as well. And other than these two not-so-ordinary paintings, he has painted several other artworks on canvas depicting the life and times in the TS.
These works are part of the exhibition titled Mahilothsavam ongoing at Salar Jung Museum which celebrates womanhood through photograph-like artworks. As of now, he’s conducted three solo exhibitions at various places. Born into a family of farmers at Shadnagar, he took to painting quite early.
He shares, "I began drawing and painting on canvas during school days. I was enchanted with European style artworks and glanced at them for hours whenever I had a chance to take a look at them."
That’s how most of his paintings have this beautiful texture and finesse that one sees in old classics. Not only this the luminescence in the opuses are remarkable as if the source of light is always there, but is hidden from the eye of the one, who is seeing it.
And as a result of this, the colours appear brighter, photograph-like giving the entire work a natural appeal without the force or movement of an artist’s brush. The exhibition is on till March 10.