Come Basant or Spring, and everything around becomes bright and bursting with life and colours, making even pandemic gloom take a back seat. This is what 10 artists whose artworks are curated by Pratibha Agarwal, are doing in the ongoing group art exhibition “Basant Bahar”, organised by Noida’s Art Life Gallery.
The participating artists are Ashok Baldodiya, Vivek Singh, Debjani, Neelam Sachan, Daisy Mittal, Babu, Pooja Yadav, Mehmood Ahmed, Anamika and Rajat Subhra and each uses diverse elements of Nature to highlight the beauty of Basant.
Baldodia’s works “Dusk” and “Sky On Earth” are truly eye-catching as they have birds, foliage, sky and water to capture everything that is beautiful in Nature in amazing colours. The first work uses yellow and golden shades to give the viewer the feel of sunset while the azure in the second brings the sky right on the earth. “The play of light and dark shades with a dash of dull and bright brings out an effort that leaves the viewer spell bound,” observed Agarwal.
'Sky On Earth' by Ashok Baldodia
Artists Babu and Mahmood present a riot of colours as visible in the countryside to make the viewer feel the freshness of spring. The latter’s “Spring Time” and “Spring Time 2”, uses red, yellow, golden, green hues to impress one with the spurt in vegetation in the villages while the former in “Spring In Village” and “Untitled” provides glimpses in the change in colours of the sky, mountains, trees, plains and water with liberal use of blue, green, orange, red, etc. Talking to India Narrative, Agarwal disclosed that Babu spent his childhood in Bengal while Mahmood comes from Uttar Pradesh and both are influenced by the rural ambience of their respective regions.
'Spring In Village' by Babu
Debjani’s “The Butterfly” and “Floating Flower” using minimum colours and figures elegantly express the theme of the show. The blue coloured insect moving among the flowers is symbolic of the spring in the air while the red hued flower stands out in the sensitive pastel background to bring out the bloom witnessed in the season.
Debjani's 'The Butterfly'
Elaborating on Debjani’s technique, Agarwal told India Narrative: “She has used the minimalistic genre to express her feelings. Her paintings have two dimensions. One a colourful corner, rest a minimalistic depiction. She gives the viewers the option of focusing on the colours or simply to immerse in the almost blank space.”
Neelam Sachan's 'Spring Dawn'
“Spring Dawn” by Neelam Sachan provides a three-dimensional view of a large green patch in the early morning. She uses the rising sun’s rays to effectively illuminate the grass and leaves while making the viewer realise the shade of the trees.
Artist Rajat Subhra works “Breeze” and “Breeze2” too, make the viewers sense that they are facing sea or ocean and are being hit by gusts of wind. The forms and colours in the works heighten this feeling. A water colourist of repute, the artist according to the curator uses colours and strokes judiciously.
'Breeze' by Rajat Subhra
Singh uses weeds in green and red colours – “Flowering Weeds” and “Red Weeds” to show spurt in spring bloom while Mittal highlights this aspect through flowers in “Flowering Tree” and “Tulip” as does Anamika in “Fire and Flower”.
(The show is on view till February 20, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.)
