The artist’s fascination for the motif is amply obvious in his solo display at Hyderabad’s Kalakriti Artwork Gallery
A 54×64 inches vibrant canvas stuffed with white lotuses surrounding a wounded Bhishma mendacity on a mattress of arrows that look like lotus flora, depicts artist Ramu Das’ epic creativeness. The ‘Petamaha’ portray derived from the combat scene of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata is without doubt one of the few figurative works displayed on the artist’s solo display ‘An Idyllic Global, The Actual & The Imagined’ at Kalakriti Artwork Gallery in Hyderabad. “Bheeshma used to be in deep ache but in addition content material, symbolising purity,” says Ramu of the lotuses swaying in his favorite paintings. The lotus collection has been his center of attention for 6 years now, mixing the true and surreal.
Habitual motif
The 16 vibrant works on show contain a mix of acrylics and oil on canvas. Impressed by way of his existence reviews, the artist’s compositions are each visually aesthetic and symbolic too. Their colourful wildlife encompasses other subject matters — private, social, and political. “The lotus is utilized in worship and is regarded as a manifestation of the divine. The flower symbolises purity and a motif to put across feelings,” he elaborates.
Hailing from Teor village in Dakshin Dinajpur district of West Bengal, Ramu’s recollections of the lotus grasp a distinct position. “Lotuses are in nice call for and many of us create small ponds to farm the flora. But even so growing trade thru export, the lotus additionally has medicinal makes use of,” he says.
Whilst his father used to be a theatre artist, Ramu’s grandfather used to be an artist. Recalling a small incident that made him extra focussed on artwork, he says. “My artwork instructor had as soon as liked a peacock drawing of mine. It inspired me and observing my grandfather paint additionally motivated me.”
His skilled adventure started with commissioned works — decorations for weddings, writing slogans on partitions all the way through elections and ads for presidency welfare schemes. Recognising his pastime and talents in portray, Nimai Laha, the librarian in their village library instructed that he will have to pursue artwork. “Most effective then I were given to grasp that one could make it a profession in artwork,” he recalls.
His creative adventure started with a textile design direction at Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan in ’98 and endured to apply as a contract artist from Santiniketan after his MFA. Ramu explores other human feelings and sophisticated concept patterns thru symbolic and metaphoric illustration. His use of the lotus motif as a logo is encouraged by way of his visits to the Buddhist temples in Darjeeling and Nepal the place he noticed the way in which the flower used to be represented in art work. “It introduced again recollections of the Ajanta caves I had visited as an artwork scholar,” he provides.
His present works are figurative ones with the lotus and he hopes to subsequent center of attention at the motif and its non secular part.
(The exhibition ‘An Idyllic Global, The Actual & The Imagined’ on until November 30 )
