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The colours on a body

Lack of training can be such a blessing

Radhika Prathipati sees women a little differently from other folks. She lavishes colours on her subjects and immerses them in their surroundings. She sees the body as a sublime object as it were. A computer professional who discovered art out of lov e rather than training, the way she deals with the canvas shows a sense of purpose and deliberation.

Step up close to any of her 22 paintings on display at Lakshana Art Gallery and the thoughts switch between the simplicity of treatment and the dexterity of the artist. Radhika reduces the woman’s body to an outline and fills it with not just colours but issues and objects that ask a hundred questions. The acrylics that Radhika uses are bright and sock you on the face, but the sensibility is another thing: An evolved subtle way of communicating is her forte.

The outline is structured on fluid lines that are as sensual as a cliché right down to the black flowing tresses. An elemental obsession with water sees her douse her subjects in the element and lace them symbols and metaphors from the aquatic world. Lotus leaves, flowers, birds and crows drop by on her canvas to lend their symbolic value to the paintings.

“The protagonists in my paintings are involved in introspective, philosophical dialogue. The mood is contemplative, sometimes even melancholic,” writes the artist summing up her craft.

SERISH NANISETTI

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