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Photo:H.Vibhu

Lines and nature Narayanan Namboodiri

Narayanan Namboodiri, an art restorer with the Eastern Regional Centre for Restoration and Conservation of Art, Victoria Memorial, says “It is not very creative, but then there is a purpose behind what I do. It is to preserve paintings which are a window to our past for the future to see.”

Narayanan Namboodiri’s series of paintings ‘Hues in Forms’ are exhibited at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery. The paintings exhibited are a release of the creative kind. A passion for painting led him to art restoration and 15 years of intense sadhana led to the paintings in series.

Birds and snakes drawn from his storehouse of memories of a childhood surrounded by kaavus and waking up to birdsongs. Contrary to the fluid temperament of the medium – water colours – Namboodiri manages to give it a textured look. The softness that one associates with water colours and birds is absent. There is a kind of muted violence in the paintings which the artist says is intentional. The paintings which look like random scribbling and etchings take shape and life as you carefully meditate on each frame. Colours are earthy, raw tones. Browns abound and the lines are sharp rough and bold. They unite to form a cohesive whole.

Everest Raj with their works

The exhibition is on till January 23.

One would think exhibiting paintings with a touch or more of Kerala in a foreign country makes sense, but what Everest Raj proposes to do is take his series of paintings ‘Nature of Finland’ to Finland. He has exhibited the paintings, a preview of sorts, at Chitram Art Gallery before he takes them to Finland. “I have taken scenes of Kerala to Finland and people liked them. However, I feel this series too will find many takers. The people there obviously will like things familiar to them.”

“The familiar” are pictures of flora typical of Finland. Huge canvases dominated by more than life-size buds, blooms and seeds in vivid striking colours are stunning. The canvases are huge, the scale of the paintings are expansive. Everest Raj has paid attention to the smallest and finest detail. This is evident in the veins of leaves, the thorns and the stems. It is as if the artist has taken a microscope to each leaf, each bud and bloom. Such is the painstaking work that it gives each painting a three dimensional feel. There is an element of the surrealist in the predominantly realistic paintings that he has done, tiny cotton clouds that lend a dreamlike quality to each scene. The conspicuous clouds lend a sense of enormity, of space. The medium is acrylic.

Everest Raj has worked in other spheres of art like the visual media. He was the art director of movies like ‘Theerdhadanam’ and ‘Chamayam’. The exhibition is on till January 25.

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