Companions of Art

An aura of simplicity envelops the hall where the exhibition ‘Part of Thoughts’ runs at Durbar Hall Art Gallery. The alluring canvasses give out     promise and the hues that adorn it are bright and subjects palpable.  

For the three artists - a corporate executive, a homemaker and a student - the show is a realisation of their passion and a motivation to pursue one’s interest.

For Kurian Thomas, Kavitha Oommen and Anoushka, art was more of an instinct, a hobby that kept them burning. And, as Kurian puts it, they are aliens to the technicalities of art and naturally, their works are not attached to any  school. 

“It just reflects our unbridled passion and the sole motive behind the expo is to tell people that you can be artist, albeit a ordinary one, if you have the talent and determination to do it,” says Kurian, a sales executive with CEAT Tyres. His works, themed on ‘Light and Land’, are vivid and sunny and are an impressive play of colours, mainly bright blue and yellow.

Kurian’s striking work ‘Aurora’ is inspired by Aurora Borealis, the natural light display in the sky predominantly seen in the high latitude. “I was inspired by the phenomenon and felt I should retrace it,” he says.

Rightfully, ‘Aurora’, done on acrylic and oil, is lustrous and has captured  the magnetic lights in its splendour. He terms his works as a reflection of nature in ‘perfect light’ and paintings like ‘Wheat Field’ (inspired by Van Gogh), ‘Tibetan Blue’ and ‘Swiss Meadows’ portray nature, in impeccable tinges. Not only nature, even humans get to bask in ‘light’ in many of Kurian’s works. One such painting is ‘12 Hours’ that shows a lone figure surrounded by pillars and enveloped in a halo. “My friends father, a brave man, inspired me to work on ‘12 Hours,” Kurian says.

But, Kavitha Oommen’s works are more about emotions and converses on what she sees and what her mind says.

A homemaker who refused to let go her hobby, Kavitha has given her raw emotions a form. Migraine, a blindingly bright work, gives expression to her  migraine-stricken days while ‘Mazhanilakayal’ is about a calm backwater and a turbulent sky, an image imprinted forever on her mind. “Solitude is recurrent in my works. Its all about emotions and how I perceive it,” says the artist. Her work ‘Premam’ echoes the same feel as well.

But, among these works, Anoushka’s zentangling stands out. A class XII student, she claims to have taken up art as a default solution to boredom, but now dominates her life.

Her line art works are soothing, meditative and bears a huge promise. Her ‘Turbulence’ traces a lashing violent waves while ‘Red-Indian’ is a striking profile.

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