Dabbling with water colours

Dabbling with water colours

Mopasang Valath’s water colour paintings celebrate nature as well as rural life

KOCHI: Doing a watercolour painting is very different from doing on other mediums like acrylic or oil. This is because the end result while doing a water colour painting cannot be predicted. But this, according to water colouring artist Mopasang Valath, has been his most interesting medium and he has been mastering it since two decades.

This Kottayam-based self-taught artist has a never-ending passion for colours. Mopasang Valath’s creativity can be seen in over 3,000 paintings done over a span of two decades. Inspired by the works of M V Devan, Mopasang’s watercolour landscape paintings offer fascinating images that simply celebrate nature as well as rural life in myriad contexts. His images capture rustic life at its best, vibrant and pulsating with life, be it a traditional dance form ‘kathakali’ or a colourful depiction of boat race. He has developed his own visual language in experimenting with new forms such as abstracts in water colours.
Mopasang started dabbling with colours at the age of 20, and thereby started exploring oil pastels, acrylic and water colour. One of the simplest yet ironically complex forms of fine art, water colour is his favorite medium of expression now. “The uncertainty and thrill of the medium till its formation is what made me to fall in love with it,” says Mopasang.  He also says he likes to experiment a lot with colours and so he does one water colour painting every day.

For this water colour artist, painting is both his passion and profession and this is clearly evident from his works. A person who likes to take up challenges, he says, “Using water colour as a medium has always been challenging as the outcome of the painting depends on transparency and colour-harmony.”  His creativity can be seen in the ongoing exhibition ‘Oradimannu’ at Bindi Art Gallery.
His painting displayed in Bindi Art Gallery is done in patches of blue, green, white, yellow with a small red line in the lower part of the canvas. The paintings symbolise the link between nature, humans and problems existing in the world. His other works titled ‘A night Scene’, ‘Siblings’ portray the harmony that exist between nature and humans.

His achievements include a highly commended certificate from Kerala Lalit Kala Academy in 1982, among many other awards. His live painting show, Varnalokam was broadcasted in Kairali People’s Channel. He has also participated in the Water colour group show at Bangalore, Coimbatore and Kochi and has even presented Live water colour demonstrations in Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Mahe, Kochi, Kannur and Coimbatore. Mopasang was also a special invitee in the Open Streets Mysuru where a road show was conducted of his paintings along with the other artists. The exhibition will continue till October 31.

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