Six youngartists with paintings that depicted an explosion of ideas, greeted all who viewedChittadhara, an exhibition of paintings at the Kala Academy. The exhibition wasinitiated by sisters Vatsala and Vaishnavi Shakhwalkar and their friend VallabhNamshikar. “We have always wanted to host an exhibition and decided it would benice to include more good artists; that is how this group exhibition happened,”said Vatsala.
Though all theartists are graduates in fine art from the Goa College of Art, their paintings,styles and ideas were as different as the artists themselves. Vatsala’s displayedpaintings had the image of apples incorporated in different ways and with otherdifferent forms. “I am fascinated with apples. The paintings are not a seriesas much as they are a story of apples,” she says. Vallabh, though an appliedartist, loves working in paint media and began his Fishing Boat series twoyears ago. His paintings beautifully depicted the fishing boats of Betim. Fromfishing boats to animals, Shreya Naik’s paintings were an expression of herlove for animals. It can be seen from the paintings that she has attempted (andsuccessfully at that) to capture emotions in the eyes and gestures of theanimals she portrayed. A taste of the semi-abstract was given by Vaishnavi’spaintings. The paintings depicted irregular forms that she has been perfectingsince the time she was in the second year of Art College. “I like to portraybonds and parental love through my paintings,” says Vaishnavi. The forms in herpaintings are made prominent with different painted textures.
The real wasbalanced with the metaphysical and mythical with the paintings of CassicaCastelino and Kishore Gaonkar. Romance, beauty, fantasy, spirituality, allinterwoven seamlessly, could be seen in Cassica’s paintings. With a sparkle inher eyes, Cassica confessed to believing that fairies and mermaids were real. Shecalls her paintings ‘high-frequency’ paintings. Kishore Gaonkar’s paintings givethe viewer a glimpse of religion and the mythical. Rich in texture, thepaintings contain various forms of religious symbols and figures.
Loaded withideas that push the boundaries of imagination, these artists have presented aplethora of impressions of acrylic on canvas.
