The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Painting without brushes

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Friday, Jul 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Painting without brushes

Ranjani Govind

Rashmi Rachel George has completed nearly 500 paintings

— PHOTO: K. GOPINATHAN

Many hues: Rashmi Rachel George with one of her paintings at the exhibition-cum-sale on Wednesday.

Bangalore: Heard of a painter who hates the paintbrush? Twenty-one-year-old Rashmi Rachel George says: “I was trained to use a brush by my artist-mother Ruby George but even before I got acclimatised to the world of paints and palette, I spurned these accessories.” Rashmi believes that her hands, nails and toes are her best tools. She sold her first work when she was barely ten.

Born in Kerala, brought up in Delhi and Dubai and finding peace in her work in Bangalore for the last five years, this spirited artist is showcasing her work at the Zync Lounge Café in the city.

Her solo exhibition-cum-sale was inaugurated by Srikantadatta Wadiyar. “Mr. Wadiyar bought the ‘Kerala Girl’ sketch I did with charcoal,” beams Rashmi.

Colours

If colour is what she loves living with, black and white are her favourites too…the stark black that lifts itself up in expressions on the white medium. She experiments with colour too, and even tries out tea decoction for some touches in ochre.

While acrylic is what she prefers to water and oil paints, what she likes are the resins extracted from green leaves and the reds from beetroot. “Very soon my burgundy will be from pomegranates,” she says.

Rashmi has completed nearly 500 paintings so far. A favourite of hers is Rasula, a strong woman who symbolises strength and peace. It is through Rasula that her dominating feminist expressions take shape and spell her own character. “I am trying to identify my work through this woman without inhibitions, pure and dignified and symbolically without clothes too,” says Rashmi.

Rashmi has just graduated from the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat in art history. She was one of the students selected from her school to participate in the Limca Book of Records’ biggest painting in the Sharjah segment of work. She is also a winner of the Camel India Competition Award.

The exhibition-cum-sale at Zync Lounge Café, 8, Bowring Hospital Road, concludes on Friday. For details, call 98861 25450.

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