The Hindu : Karnataka News : Painting exhibition excites youth at Moodbidri

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Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Painting exhibition excites youth at Moodbidri

Govind D. Belgaumkar

The five-day utsav is a crowd-puller at Shobha Vana

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

REFLECTIONS: Visitors at the painting exhibition at Shobavana at Moodbidri as part of the Alva’s Virasat now in progress.

MOODBIDRI: A stream of youth enters the Shobha Vana at Mijar near Moodbidri where an exhibition of paintings is on as part of the five-day cultural extravaganza, “Alva’s Virasat”.

Some visitors spend time trying to understand the intricacies of the art and take peep into the minds of artists. Some others marvel at the choice and arrangement of colours on canvasses. Many sought to ignore the abstract paintings and drew pleasure from images of day-to-day life.

Artists from various parts of the State produced paintings at Shobha Vana in the run up to the virasat. The exhibition is on till Sunday.

The exhibition had something for every one, those who can appreciate modern art and those who cannot. There is a good mix of paintings that need some study to understand and those that attract the observer instantly.

Some call for a few seconds of concentration to decipher. Sharath Holla’s vertical and curvaceous lines fall in this category as a few seconds can reveal the picture of a woman in them.

Rajendra Alva’s painting of a hand in the shape of a snake raises a few questions. The snake bites itself and the artist seems to warn the onlooker against self-destructive attitudes. The hand is painted as though it is bleeding. The artists may be trying to indicate that internal forces were proving to be detrimental to the nation.

The most attractive piece is that of Hanuman who is making his own mace. The artwork by Chitramitra shows even monkeys watching him keenly. Doddmani of Bangalore, whose work shows a head of a man lying on an open book and another worried man taking a keen look at it seems to question the knowledge gained. The artist may be asking: “Have we got what we needed?”

The paintings by P.S. Punchithaya of Kasargod display the clouds in their wild and vibrant hues while U.B. Heera Gowder of Mysore uses colour patterns to take the viewer to a different world altogether.

An imagery of a (dancing?) woman through her skirt with a yogi by the side, engrossed in preparing some ayurvedic medicine is equally eye-catching.

A seemingly simple painting of Devadas Shetty where three women, carrying headloads of grass, passing by a barren tree attracted many. Two boys were saying: “Chennagide” (it is nice). People were engaged in animated discussion over some of the paintings. Art is not for art’s sake in Moodbidri, it seems.

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