Coconut trees, numerous lagoons and of course the rains! George Oommen, like any true-blue Keralite captures the beauty of his native land, on canvas, so that everyone can appreciate it. Oommen, a Boston- based architect and painter, is in Bangalore with his exhibition, ‘Visions of Kerala’ which has been brought down by the Kerala Tourism Board.

The exhibition consists of three collections— ‘Monsoon magic’, ‘The Kanjeevaram series’ and ‘Sacred places within you’. 

‘Monsoon magic’ consists primarily of abstract landscapes that mostly depict Mankotta, a tiny island near his ancestral home.

Down memory lane

Reminiscing about his visits to Kerala, he says how his paintings are all snapshots taken in his mind’s eye, “I believe that if it’s worth remembering, it’s worth painting. So I paint only from my memories of the place.” What is most striking about Oommen’s work is his unusual ‘drip’ technique.

To put it very simply, he allows water to streak down the canvas, creating an unusual piece of work. It certainly seems to be an apt technique — creating rain on a canvas to depict the monsoon!

The work is slightly impressionistic in terms of the effect created by the technique and in the treatment of colours.
And sure enough, there are bright hues- from deep greens and blues to the lively ‘Indian yellow’. Oommen says he works with water based oil paints, thus having the best of both worlds.

Oommen also uses acrylic for his works. Some of Oomen’s works also have a square within a square technique, which showcases his grasp on geometry and spaces  which depict his background  in architecture.

Moving away from the landscapes is ‘Sacred places within you’, a series that Oommen created, inspired by the sanctity of sacred spaces.

“I watched a film called ‘Phantom India’, in which there is a girl dancing in a temple, her intensity shines through and it is images like this, which inspired me to paint this series. The paintings are like the inner most sanctum in a Hindu temple which is a small dark space with a bit of illumination.”

Oommen says that like these sanctums in a temple, the series represents a sacred space within us.

The most striking collection however, is the Kanjeevaram series. Inspired by the gorgeous silk sarees, this collection of paintings is a treat for the eyes.

With the use of colour and the drip technique, Oommen has managed to create paintings, which on close inspection, reveal streaks so fine that they look like silk thread.

Traditional colours have been used and in some of the paintings, it looks like one can reach out and touch the saree!

All the works are deeply reflective of Oommen’s thoughts and experiences, “I think the sense of smell is one of the best forms of memory.”

“The smell of rain on the earth, the fragrance of first love — it could be anything. It’s difficult to recreate that intensity in a painting. It’s a challenge to bring those feelings onto the canvas,” he says.

The paintings are priced from Rs 25, 000 onwards and the exhibition is on at Time & Space Gallery (ph: 32969412), Lavelle Road.