Kerala   

Beauty from ‘scratches’

“One has to be very careful while scratching an oil painting before it gets dry. It should be finished in half an hour and it cannot be redone,” says Rekha Sharma, who recently held an exhibition of scratch and Kerala mural paintings at the Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery in Kozhikode.

Rekha had eleven scratch paintings at the exhibition, the most impressive being the two ‘Vighneswara’ paintings and one on a festival procession.

The Kerala mural paintings were done in acrylic. Interestingly, Rekha focused on birds or trees that usually make the background of mural paintings.

Thus, two peacocks, which usually form the backdrop of paintings of Krishna and Radha, received pride of the place in one of her paintings.

“I have not formally learnt painting. But I took some lessons in mural paintings,” says Rekha, who vies for a slight diversion from the usual Kerala mural painting style. One of her works shows the beautiful round face of Thanjavur Krishna -- which is quite different from the Kerala style.

Lord Krishna as a child, stealing butter from a pot, is the theme of another painting.

Rekha, now settled in Bangalore along with her husband, also displayed a series of paintings of a woman showing different emotions.

J.S. Bablu

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