The Hindu : New Delhi News : A splash of colours from Bengal

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Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

A splash of colours from Bengal

Manisha Jha

Myriad hues: A painting by Chaitali Chatterjee

NEW DELHI: After being a freelance artist for children’s books illustrations for 26 years, Chaitali Chatterjee has decided to give it all up for something she could finally call her own. Her first solo exhibition of paintings, “A Splash of Colours”, opens at the All-India Fine Arts and Crafts Society on Rafi Marg here this coming Saturday.

Exploring the theme of womanhood, the 26 paintings that will be on display combine the medium of oil and mixed media on canvas with a strong emphasis on colour and forms rather than technique.

“Colours have always been my strong point, so in this collection too I have tried to emphasise colours and play on them. Due to my Bengali roots I have always been fascinated with floral rangoli designs which also find a reflection in my paintings,” says the artist.

“Being a woman myself, I feel I can understand the varied moods and emotions a woman experiences in life and express the same through my paintings,” she adds.

Describing her artistic style as something midway between realism and abstract, Chaitali says: “I don’t like realism too much because I feel it can be captured through photography itself. Paintings, however, should be able to bring out another dimension and make it more dreamy than realistic.”

A graduate from Delhi’s College of Art, Chaitali had been making illustrations for books since 1980.

“Though it paid well, it didn’t give me the creative freedom I craved for. I had to compromise a lot and work according to the budgets of my clients. Moreover, I got so tired because of the monotony and wished to break out of the stagnation phase.”

Having taken the difficult decision to move on, Chaitali kept waiting for the right opportunity to come knocking at her door once her children had grown up and her husband had settled into a stable job as a teacher. “This collection that I have put together in the last two years called for a lot of hard work, but has given me more satisfaction and enjoyment then the years spent before as an illustrator. I consider myself extremely lucky to have the same profession and hobby in life and don’t plan to get back to illustrating anytime soon in the future,” she adds. The exhibition will be open from September 1 to 7.

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