PAINTINGS/SERIES
Portfolio
SAMANTARAL: PARALLEL PATHS
Status: Ongoing
PREFACE:
They were born in totally different worlds, but somehow the forces made the worlds merge into each other resulting in their first interaction,
The story of two lovers acts as a mirror of the reality we try to hide every now and then behind the excuses of our culture, history and dignity.
This is an ongoing traditional painting series telling some of the real life situations through an imaginary world.
KUMBHA
Medium: Acrylic and Gold Leaf Collage on Paper
Kumbha, as his name, he holds a whole new world inside him. Sea God’s pearl of the eye; his dearest child, born from the very deep essence of the sea, is an absolute reservoir of calm water, filled with all the wisdom and patience of the world. A resilient spirit capable of withstanding any challenge while also having the power to shatter even the hardest of stones. From the start he has a soft and sedative nature, always interacting and amalgamating with the small energy flows of nature with his soul. He was infinite within himself but the manifestation of his soul didn’t inundate his physical body. Through time he roamed over the seas, never caring of the other world until the worlds merged and he came to know Syamantak. Little did he know that this encounter will bring drastic changes to his life?
SYAMANTAK
Medium: Acrylic and Gold Leaf Collage on Paper
Syamantak, the shining firstborn of the earth king; his most precious hair; born with the blessings of Surya (Sun god) himself, is the epitome of energy and elegant demeanor. He is free, brave and full of life! A carefree new soul, born from the new energies that always wants to explore and experience the forces of the lands and nature. The little energy flows, the large structures, the elemental beauties, the flowing spirits, he thrived to experience all of these. While he was in an infinite exploration around land and skies in his world, it started merging with other worlds. As an overwhelmed Syamantak devouring the beauty of natural amalgamation his sharp and elegant eyes fell upon one soul, who he had never imagined would have the most profound influence on his life! He saw him! Kumbha!
ATIMITRATA (INTIMACY)
Medium: Acrylic and Gold Leaf Collage on Paper
This is one of the storyline painting of the series. It is from a part where the two lovers are entangled in each other’s love and affection. The storyline building as well as the series is ongoing. Therefore the storyline of this painting will also be available as soon as the series will be completed or updated.
ARTIST'S NOTE: ANALYTICAL DEMOSTRATION
Mythology is basically stories developed through various historical eras in human civilization which conjugated with human psychology gave birth to religion and various beliefs. In larger scale (as population increased by time) it continues to provide numerous and variety of effects on social structure and economy.
I believe art is not only a mirror of society and our consciousness but also a way to change different points of views in different areas.
To think of art as a key to change social rigidity caused by various beliefs and religious emotions, in this series I preferred not to stay minimal. In fact, I consciously chose storytelling through numerous paintings as a series in place of one minimalistic painting.
I even tried to mix some old forms of art from Asian and south Asian style (Mostly Thangka and Indian paintings) with some more recent approach of flat colours and contemporary illustrations.
On the other hand, to me which are the most crucial aspects of this series are the colour codes. As the story depicts the breaking of unconventional and stereotypical concepts of relationship between two persons, I deliberately chose the opposite and unrelated colours for every elements in every picture.
For examples, in the painting “Character-II: Syamantak”, he’s from earth. He’s free and near to the blue skies.
To represent the whole “breaking the conventional concept”, I painted skies in his background with red in place of blue. Same goes for the painting “Character I: Kumbha”.
He’s from the seas. As water reflects the skies in large scale, in most cases its colour is blue. Again as the “breaking” rule, I deliberately painted water in his background with red in place of blue.
For the paintings that represents their attraction to each other, intimacies, love and affection, desire etc. I tried to maintain the same “breaking the code” concept. The most common colour code of these feelings is “Red”, which I broke by painting the backgrounds in greenish and bluish colour tones. As their love is unrecognized in most cases and seen as an unconventional and unnatural form of relationship here I used unrelated opposite colours of love.
Now coming to the black long cloak which represents their attachment. As you can see it’s in every picture but in “Black!” Why? As much as I analyzed, “White” is the common colour code for “Goodness” or “Positivity. But that came from the western concept to our lands. The very ‘Mahakaal” represents “Black” but also the “Almighty! We Indian and Asian people never saw black as a so called “Bad” or “Evil” concept in many cases, but it’s rather the opposite! Only with time outside concepts suppressed our general consciousness. And here, their relationship, which is actually very much natural is seen as “Bad” or “Evil” or “Unnatural”. So I deliberately chose black to represent their positive and natural energies, the beauty and warmth of their togetherness.
