BHARATI PAWASKAR
Poetic Hues’, an ongoing exhibition at the art gallery of Kala Academy in Panaji is the positive expression of the Goan poetry through the brilliant brush strokes of veteran artist Nirupa Naik, who has mastered both these art forms. A poet herself, Nirupa travels through the world of words and colours with equal ease, so much so that one wonders what is more beautiful - the poem or the painting.
A painting is a silent poem, a virtual but colourful expression of the emotions and narrations. Similarly, a poem is a feeling that is evoked deep within when you see something beautiful and try to express it verbally.
Words inscribed on her mind find expression through colours on canvas. Nirupa is living this concept ever since she encountered with poetry and paint. A 1981 graduate from Goa College of Art, she is at equal ease with both these forms of art. How did this concept of mix and match come to her? “It’s a long story,” quips Nirupa. She recalls the days when she was a student trained by the renowned singer Ranjana Kashyap and used to participate in Sugam Sangeet programme on All India Radio, Panaji and sing.
Fond of reading poems from school age, Nirupa searched for books of poetry to choose poems from and voice them on AIR. In those days she read Marathi poets. AIR asked her to sing poems from the poets in Goa and so she turned to Konkani poetry and searched for books of Shankar Ramani, Bakibab Borkar, Damodar Kare, Uday Bhembre among others. She was deeply inspired by the words of these veterans.
“However my singing stopped abruptly after my mother passed away. Something inside me died. But my paintings continued. I devoted more time to my painting. Though I no more sang, the love for poetry remained seeded deep within and whenever I read a good poem, the visuals of its contents kept appearing before my mind. My paintings were naturally inclined towards and inspired by poetry. The two didn’t remain separate. They became one and my current exhibition is the outcome of these inner churnings,” deliberates Nirupa who has displayed 15 of her recent paintings, with only one or two from her earlier works.
Choosing selective works by the past and present poets of this land, Nirupa depicts their poetic verses in her unique style. Uday Bhembre’s legendary song Channyachya Raati was one of her favourites and a painting is based on it in the exhibition. Similarly, Bakibab Borkar’s Nile Nile Shevnem is another of her favourite poem which she tried to immolate into a painting. Many of the poems from her school days still mesmerise her. One of them is Damodar Kare’s patriotic song Smaruni Gomant Devi and the Asha Bhonsle sung song from film Sukhache Sobati -Eka talyat hoti badake pille anek, hote kurup vede pillu tayant ek…’ Nirupa shares, “Whenever I listened to these songs I could always see them as a painting.”
Her exhibition, inaugurated by renowned artist Padma Shri Laxman Pai and noted author Uday Bhembre, allows the viewers to traverse through the wonderful world of poetry and painting, and experience their beauty at the same time. A voracious reader of Marathi and Konkani poetry, Nirupa fell in love with both these mediums of expression and wished to blend them, weaving colours and words in a fabric of her own choice - the canvas. And luckily she possesses the talent to do so.
It took her less than two months to work on and compile her current collection. With numerous groups and solo shows to her credit, Nirupa has earned respect as an artist in Goa where she was born and brought up.
In her academic years Nirupa’s teachers encouraged her to draw and paint which she did with much delight, retaining her own independent style and identity. Though her poems have been confined to her diaries and not seen the light of the day as yet, her matured intelligence allows her to blossom into a personality of her own. She finds peace and harmony in her positive expressions that come with a subtle message of tranquil and sublimation.
