For painters Bijay Biswaal and Satyabhama Majhi, Odisha is an integral element in their oeuvres. And they have been using their craft and canvases to bring various shades of the state to the fore. While Biswaal’s creations are reflective of Odisha’s artistic heritage, Majhi has been focussing on urbanisation of the state.Odisha has always been a part of my paintings, says Biswaal, a former employee of Nagpur division of Indian Railways who shot to fame for his watercolour paintings of rain-soaked railway stations. “I try to add Odisha’s motifs like its temples and textile patterns in most of my paintings whenever it is possible. So, one can find a Mukteswar Temple arch, a Lingaraj Temple or for that matter any Odishan style temple in my series on railway platforms,” says the Nagpur-based painter, who was born in Pallahara, Angul, Odisha. Similarly, his paintings on divinity are decorated with textile patterns of Sambalpuri Ikat, a Phoda Kumbha or Pasapalli.
Counted among one of the popular watercolour painters of India, Biswaal’s artistic journey began in childhood. “It was never a conscious decision to paint in watercolour. Every artist needs a medium to express herself or himself, I started with charcoal from my mother’s chullah at our ancestral home in Odisha. Walls and floors became my canvas and I found chita (wall paintings) during the Manabasa Osha festival another way of creative expression. I got my first set of watercolours when I was 20.
I made mistakes as I never knew the right technique. I did not know how to achieve that transparency and translucence in this medium but I learnt by trial and error method,” he says, adding there was no mobile phone or YouTube then. “I should thank God for that,” he smiles. Biswaal developed his own style after exploring works of other watercolour artists and reading books by various painters in the medium like John Fernandes and Milind Mulick.
Though Nagpur has been his home for a long time, many of his paintings are replete with Odisha-centric motifs and imagery. His painting ‘Odisha Village’ had won an international jury award from the International Watercolour Society in Istanbul a few years back. “It was a tribute to my native village. I use the Sambalpuri Ikat pattern and Pattachitra in most of my creative works. In my own subtle way, I try to include and celebrate Odia culture in my art, both in watercolour and acrylics. In days to come I would love to use these motifs in my future works as so many facets of our rich cultural heritage are still untapped and unused,” he says.
Biswaal likes drawing rural landscapes in Odisha. The small thatched houses, cattle on muddy roads, village ponds and bullock carts are his points of interest. “My list of subjects is endless when it comes to my beautiful State,” says the artist who is currently working on two series, ‘Dasa Mahavidya’ and ‘Vanvyas’.
Besides, he is now adding new works to his existing series on his village in Angul district.Like Biswaal, Odisha and its heritage is close to Majhi’s heart too. But the artist has been using her art to highlight the changing landscape of the Twin City of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
Majhi, who earlier documented the evolution of Bhubaneswar—from a beautiful, green place to a city replete with concrete buildings and highrises—through art, is now giving the Millennium City of Cuttack a new look. Collaborating with the Cuttack Municipal Corporation for the public art project, she is painting the city walls in different hues and themes.At some places, Majhi is painting patterns of crafts and flowers native to the land, and at others, her subjects are people in the lanes and bylanes. Be it the filigree craftsmen, flower sellers or the popular ‘Dahi Bara’ vendors of Cuttack, a city of brotherhood and heritage. Her work is a portrayal of the former Odisha capital’s many shades that are fading with time.
A State Lalit Kala Akademi awardee, Majhi is today considered one among the few contemporary women painters in the state. “My body of work is a testimony to what urbanisation has done to cities. I grew up in the Twin City and I have noticed how it has evolved with people from various parts of the country making it their home over the years. As the influx of people continues, it brings with it several good and bad changes,” says the artist.
And for the public art project, she has been working with the local communities. Every lane that she has painted so far, has the involvement of locals in the process. “Even in a slum, its dwellers have many stories of the place they live in. I try to portray them on the walls of their houses,” she says. And, art transcends social boundaries one brushstroke at a time.