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Inspired by green Kerala

Photo: Priyadershini S.

New settings The artists who participated in the National Painter’s Camp at Brunton Boatyard

Twelve artists in a space, a beautiful veranda in the history steeped Brunton Boatyard as studio. Can you imagine the profusion of ideas, concepts and colours? Well, that rainbow you envisage was very much there at the conclusion of the recently concluded National Painter’s Camp, Karkidakam, organised by Kerala Lalitakala Akademi.

And the dominating colour was green. Well, a green rainbow?

Said Vivek, a senior artist from Bhopal “This lush green that you see here is not found in any other part of India. This green is highly inspiring. Most Kerala artists use a very good variation of green and ultramarine. Look at Unni Shankar’s work.” His canvases had the teapot set in green and blue background. Fascinated by Munnar, which he has visited only in his mind, it is the form of a teapot that he continuously reinterprets. The green and blue of Unni Shakar’s canvases try to frame infinity. “I am outside the frame,” he says, explaining that he is self taught and that he’s not constrained by the parameters of a camp. Nor does a camp limit Madhubala and Aloke Sharma from Indore. Both are freelance artists and are happy to be here. “This is good exposure for our work and we get to meet so many artists.” For Madhu it is paradise being here because Nature is her main inspiration. She dreams her canvases and they are dreams of nature. Her two works are a continuation of her Dream Series. So is Aloke’s works a forward of his Dream Sellers series. Having spent his childhood on river banks and in rivers it is his fascination with paper boats and fish, water and anglers that find expression on his canvas. Uma Vegesina too is overwhelmed by nature, to the extent that she began a self portrait only to cover it with leaves and birds. “I just could not do it otherwise…there was this twittering bird in the grass that drew my attention…Kerala looks like a flower,” she said. Gopikala from Delhi too painted the blue choppy waters of the channel near the venue. But the bigger subject of women in distress also found expression in another work by her. P.K. Sreenivasan from Thrissur said he plainly drew his moods. “My irritation, anger and joy…it’s all there.” His works were a melange of colours. Prolay Kundu from Kolkata is an art teacher with Delhi Public School. His works show God’s hands rearranging the beauty of God’s Own Country. Primarily a user of water colours here he has used acrylic in a watery flow. The effect is beautiful and different. Saju Mannathur’s raging bulls evoke controlled strength and power. “It’s the end of the race,” he explains while his other work is inspired by green foliage and animal life.

Sreeja is from Kozhikode and an art teacher at the city’s Kendriya Vidyalya 1. Her works stem from the antiquity of the venue. The 500- year- old edifice, the urns, the sceptres, the old artefacts inspire her. She has connected the past and present innovatively through coins, some very old ones, tracing colonial history. Numismatics is what she taps to express herself. Francis Kodankandath’s works are futuristic and stem from the traffic that he met on the way to the venue. Almost Shelly-like he draws mermaids and mermen with wings and wishes that man could soon fly across countries. “It will be a borderless world,” he hopes when man will fly.

At the conclusion one saw many canvases, 24 to be precise, all in some way paying tribute to the beauty of Kerala. The works will be exhibited in the coming months at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery. The Painter’s camp moves to Thekkady where some new artists join the group while some return.

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