By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: As many as 50 works of 13 Bhopal-based female painters were on display portraying different shades of women in various forms which attracted the art lovers. To mark the International Women’s Day a two-day group painting exhibition “Aananda” was organised by Art 20-20 which concluded at Swaraj Vithika art gallery here on Monday.
The exhibition, among other paintings, showcased four figurative works of artist Naina Gupta. Her works based on acrylic on canvas highlight the female feelings, thoughts and expressions. She painted leaf ornament, pot and “Bindi” to show women ubiquitous. Here the red “Bindi” symbolises attraction as well as concentration. She used knife, brush and palm impression for textures.
Artist Naina Gupta along with her father with her paintings at the exhibition
Talking to this Correspondent, Naina Gupta, said: “Painting is the path of my life. This art is a heavenly gift to me. I started drawings at my very early stage of childhood, prior to my formal education. In all my paintings, I have worked hard to index it out the different shades of life, nature and dreams. In my presentations, I have equalised the imagination with the degree of pleasure a person can receive. The texture and tone of my paintings holds a freshness of colours.”
Further she said that she enjoys all subject matters especially bright soft light, shades of nature, still life, abstract, modern paintings and recently started work on female expression. “My collection holds my hard work, feeling and respect to the art”, Naina stated.
She is well versed in Traditional Skills such as: Mandana Painting (Malwa); Madgubani Painting (Bihar); Mukhota Art (Andhra Pradesh); Mud work (Kuchh, Gujarat); Thanka Painting (Sikkim) and Miniature Painting (Rajasthan).
In 2003 Naina was awarded silver medal by Manav Sanket, Ujjain. In June 2004 a Solo Exhibition of her paintings christened as “Shashwat” was held at Devlaikar Kala Veethika, in Indore. Apart from this her works was displayed in a number of Group Exhibition over the years. She has done her masters in Fine Arts from Barakatullah University, Bhopal. The medium of her paintings contains oil, wax, acrylic colour and canvas.
Meanwhile, five works of artist Anju Pethiya are based on pure Warli paintings, a popular tribal art form of Maharashtra. The speciality of this art form is that triangle is used to draw body of a person while lines and sticks are used to show legs and hands. A work in acrylic on canvas portrayed the women powers while rest of the three works in water colour on paper, depicted the rural ambience of tribal community.
Artist Usha Lokhande exhibited her five works in contemporary forms which highlighted love and motherly feelings. In her two works, based on acrylic on canvas in blue, she painted faces of Radha and Krishna symbolising love whereas in three works in oil colours she painted the face of goddesses which represent motherly feelings. She also used ceramic for texture.
Painting of other artists on display
Artist Sadhna Shukla showcased four works based on beauty of nature and mythology. A work entitled ‘Ladli’ sends out a message that we should bring up the girls with love. It must be noted here that she painted all of her drawings by using dot and black ink pen on canvas and paper.
Besides the painting, some ceramics works of senior artists Nirmala Sharma and Leelamani Pillai were on display, which were appreciated by art lovers. Some works of other artists including Rupinder Kaur, Nita Soni, Preeti Agrawal, Upasna Sarang, Dr. Rekha Bhatnagar, Dr. Kusumlata Sharma were also showcased.
Apart from exhibition, two Bhopal-based social activists Sunila Sharma Raja and Sapna Gupta were felicitated by Art 20-20 with ‘Aananda Samman-2015’ for their contribution to social work. It is noteworthy here that Raja has been working for transgender and AIDS patient for past 25 years while Gupta has been working with an NGO Aarushi for past 18 years.