Abstract view

She was born in a Gujarati family in Bahrain. Even though Ella Prakash was far away from India, conservative mindset that prevailed in her family started bothering her at an early age.

There were set rules on how a girl should behave and what should become of her life. Even though she didn’t prescribe to these diktats, she felt suffocated. She rebelled where she could, but ended up listening to her parents and settling down. 

After almost several decades, Bahrain-based Prakash has expressed these expressions in an abstract show “Quest Inner Self” which is mounted at Visual Art Gallery till February 11.

“I had started painting at 10 and I wanted to take it up professionally but since I come from a Gujarati family there were set rules we had to follow. Another impediment was that there weren’t art schools in Bahrain so whatever I have learnt is from experience,” she tells Metrolife.

While she got busy in her marital life, she could never suppress her passion. So in 2002, when her children were grown up, she restarted her artistic journey and started her own gallery. Initially she exhibited her shows there, but it was in 2006  when her talent was recognised.

“In 2006, Bahrain Grain Prix happened for the first time and organisers approached me to make 10 paintings in 10 days. So my artistic journey really took off from there,” she recollects. In the coming years she started exhibiting internationally and it was in 2012 she started working on the “women theme”.

“These works come from my own life and past. Things for women have changed a lot today, but things were different in 80s and 90s. So, I want to show women in positive and powerful light,” she adds.

She has touched upon the theme of solitude, loneliness, acceptance and circle of life in the works displayed here. “Indian art is verydifferent from what I do. I don’t know how much they will appreciate it but I am doing this for myself and that is enough to keep me going,” she says.