Nature-inspired

healing works

Interpreting nature can be tricky. So is painting it. As an artist, one can try to focus on its essence, but lose out on its detail and form. Otherwise, one can try to get a grip on the instantaneous, but miss out on its fluid dynamics. Rare is the work of art that manages to portray all of this together. Both Akmal Husain and Keiko Mima manage to do exactly this, in their own unique ways.

This hugely talented and successful artist-couple are enigmatic in more ways than one. Husain is from rural Assam, Mima from Japan, and they have now made Puducherry their home, where they live with their three young daughters. The works of both Husain, who had his art education at Shantiniketan, and Mima, who studied art at Kyoto Seika University, Japan, are much sought after.

Mima and Husain are both drawn to nature but interpret it in their own way. Husain’s visualisation of nature is unique and in a sense, simplistic. It radiates positivity, bliss and beauty. His paintings reflect an oasis of tranquility in this chaotic life, taking you into the beautiful village life that once existed everywhere. Mima’s paintings, on the other hand, radiate etherealness, fragility, transience and the timelessness of nature — in a sense, alluding to the spiritual concept of ‘Maya’.

Journey decoded

Mima has been painting since she was a child. “My mother is an artist too and teaches painting to children at our home in Japan. When I was young, I was her student too. She always made us paint flowers and fruits with watercolours, which I tried to render as realistically as I could,” she says.

We learn that she began studying painting more seriously in high school. It was there that she learnt charcoal drawing and oil painting. After that, she studied oil painting in an art college, where she tried experimenting with various new materials also. Then, she was using mixed mediums to make several abstract images. The mediums she now favours are pencil and watercolours. She has a fascination for traditional Indian mural art, which she hopes to learn some day.

“When I started painting with watercolours again in India in 1997, there had been a large gap of about 20 years since I had last painted flowers. When I started to observe and study flowers more deeply, I was fascinated. Their beauty is not limited to their form and colour, but they have feelings like human beings, or one might even say that they are more sensitive,” she explains.

Husain lets us in on his entry into the fascinating world of art. “I started painting with oil paints only in my third year at Kalabhavan. It took me a year to understand the medium. I discovered that it allowed me to erase and repaint portions unlike watercolours. I was fascinated by the rural settings around Kalabhavan, especially the atmosphere created by the light of the setting sun, or dawn. I sketched whatever I could, and the rest I absorbed. I was not very skilled at drawing, so when I returned to the studio, I painted, erased and painted again, trying to bring out what I had absorbed,” he shares.

It was during his fourth year at Shantiniketan, in the Kolkata Book Fair, that he discovered a book called Modern Primitive Painting, which gave him a lot of confidence to draw. “Over a period of six months, I made two large oil paintings. And one more by the end of my final year, which took me almost six months to complete with all the erasing and repainting. That painting won me the National Academy Award by Lalit Kala Academy in 1985. Eventually, erasing and reworking became my personal technique,” Husain beams.

In 2015, he started a series of experimental watercolours based on the theme of leaves. “An oil painting takes me two to three months to complete. While at it, I see around me the changing nature. Simply fallen leaves of various kinds, and their many colours, sometimes wet, at others dry, have inspired me. That is how I began my experiments with composing layers of semi-abstract watercolours.” Husain’s many awards include the Sovana Banik Memorial Scholarship and the National Academy Award of Lalit Kala Academy.

Since the medium of inspiration and the mode of work is the same, do Husain and Mima discuss their ideas with each other? Husain explains, “It is true that both of us paint from nature, but we see it with different eyes. Hence, our techniques are different. It is in my nature to discuss my work with her before, during and after creating it. She is the opposite; she likes to work but does not like to talk about it very much. Her discipline inspires me very much.” Mima adds, “There is an exchange, and his techniques are sometimes helpful in my work.” 

In 2003, they moved to Puducherry for the education of their eldest daughter. Now, all their daughters are studying there. Talking about the transition of the town, Mima says, “The first time I visited Puducherry was in 2000. It wasn’t crowded then and the atmosphere was more peaceful, even spiritual, and the people were very good-natured.” But she hastens to add that they do enjoy the town’s coastal scenery and sea breeze, and find Puducherry’s ayurveda and homeopathy very useful.

Influenced by their lands

Nevertheless, the lands that spawned them rules large in their hearts. For instance, Husain shares that whenever he does oil paintings, he subconsciously draws inspiration from his early childhood and Shantiniketan days. Born in Silchar in Assam, Husain grew up surrounded by nature. “My home was at a little distance away from the main town and our home was surrounded by greenery. My father was very fond of gardens, and my mother had a passion for betel nut trees and vegetable plants. I used to accompany her to the garden to plant betel nut trees, vegetable seeds, etc. There was always a milch cow at home, which remains to be one of my favourite subjects,” he says. This trend continued even when he went to Shantiniketan to learn painting.

It’s the same case with Mima. She carries Japan in her soul. “I do not miss the nature or colours of Japan since they are within me,” she says. She mentions that while she is not directly inspired by traditional Japanese art, it has shaped her in a way because her sense of beauty was cultivated in Japan. She says, “I mostly draw flowers and landscapes in situ. But influences from my early experiences of nature in Japan are at work too, in the background. I continue to draw and paint from nature and I hope to heal people’s hearts through my work.”