You can’t miss the massive blue coloured door towards your right when you walk into Satchidananda’s painting exhibition held in Mysore recently. A 3 D painting, a huge life-size image of a half-opened door welcomes the visitors as they enter ‘Hayagreeva Vidyarthi Mandiram’, the venue of the exhibition.

Even the connoisseurs of art are most likely to mistake this painting for a real door. When my eight-years-old son makes an attempt to enter ‘the door’, a soft cheery voice stops him, “There is nothing inside this door, it is only a painting”… “I am Satchidananda” the man behind the masterstroke introduces himself.

The old rustic walls of this 80-year-old building, where the exhibition is held prompts you to ask the obvious, “Why did you decide to have your debut painting exhibition in this antique house and not in the bustling surroundings of an art gallery or the lobby of a plush hotel where such exhibitions are generally held. “It is a Vestigium in a vestigium” elucidates Satchidananda (Sachu to his friends). “I could not think of a more appropriate venue than this rustic house to showcase my work. The country walls of the house enhance the appeal of my paintings and lend them a make believe effect.” Old chair, cane basket, dry mango leaves, well in the backyard and old cupboard bring back the memories of yesteryears.

The paintings are based on a theme called Mayasnadra, a village where the artist spent his childhood. This is an endeavour by the artist to revive his memories of subjects. The 3 D paintings capture real life images of the artist’s life. Surprisingly there are no faces or even human forms at all but only objects and yet there is no dead stillness in these lifeless objects.

Satchidananda calls his paintings ‘still life’ as without any human figures included, they focus on sensitively observed small domestic objects in and around modest rustic houses.

Yet they are full of expressions, it brings memories of days of yore when simple living was the order of the day. These are realistically set in actual surroundings reflecting subdued traces of the people to whom they belonged. The artist has deliberately not included any portraits or human faces as they may intrude privacy of individuals. “There is nothing left in Mayasnadra but now Mayasnadra will become eternal through these paintings” reminiscences the artist.

Hayagreeva Vidyarthi Mandiram is a very old house with plenty of tiny rooms on two floors.  Each room exhibits only a single painting and the caption of the painting is scribbled below with pencil.
You are advised to visit each painting in a chronological order to get the feel of real… the feel of entering a house,… each room in the house and then other objects like basket, chair, bed etc. each painting and even each object in the painting narrates a story.

“This is my first exhibition which has taken me close to two years to complete all the paintings; I am overwhelmed by the response in spite of displaying my work in a very rustic and simple atmosphere. Perhaps the surroundings give life to my painting and each object speaks in subdued whispers. This does not only remind me of my family and my childhood but it is sure to create this nostalgia in all who visit this exhibition.” The paintings are based on real life scenes extracted from day-to-day life. Satchidananda is a perfectionist and attends to minute details like the folds on the cushion kept on a chair give it a make believe look and invites you to feel at home. His paintings have an enigma about them and interestingly even visitors are able to correlate and associate with these. “The best compliment was when a lady told me that my paintings reminded her of her grandmother’s house,” exudes Satchidananda with a child like glee.

Once is not enough, I visit the exhibition again, this time with the determination to understand the work more deeply and decipher the enigma attached to the subjects; his paintings give wings to your imagination and stimulates you to visualize life around these objects.

When you see a chair and a basket kept next to it, you start thinking what else could be in this room. As I finish my second visit to the exhibition, the thought comes to my mind – which was more captivating …the paintings or the subjects themselves; would these have looked as real if Satchidananda wouldn’t have personally told the story behind each piece displayed? My question remains unanswered.