JOIN USPotpourri of ideas and a palette of colours that toast life, nature
Holding a paintbrush in his long winding trunk, Lord Ganesha artistically paints a canvas. This is one of Saumyaa’s ideas that bring out the witty side of this budding 14-year-old artist. Curated by Maurice Ryder, Promises made today is Saumyaa Mehra’s first solo exhibition of paintings, sketches and photographs displayed at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise.
Walking us through the exhibition, the Class 9 student-cum-artist confidently elaborates upon her body of work. In a matter of minutes, she takes us from Delhi’s Jama Masjid to Rome’s Colosseum describing her paintings and photographs. Ask her what weaves in her ideas into a single theme? And she replies, “It’s a potpourri of ideas, there’s no single theme running through my body of work.” Her work comprises acrylic, watercolour and pen-ink paintings along with photographs of her travels across India, Italy and Germany.
“I have been painting since the age of seven,” says Saumyaa, who finds it hard to stop doodling at the back pages of her notebooks even now. “While my friends used to participate in Model United Nation’s (MUN’s) in school, I used to invest my time in painting,” says Saumyaa highlighting how important it has become for school-goers to gain recognition through MUN’s . So, how did her friends react to her first exhibition? “When did you do all this?, they kept asking me. I told them it was the time I was never able to talk to them over phone. All of my friends liked my pen and ink paintings the most.” Saumyaa had decided on holding an exhibition in May last year and worked religiously over the last six months to bring out a comprehensive body of work.
Amongst her work, the warm colours and structured design of Ponte Vecchio, a bridge on Arno river in Florence, Italy; pen and ink paintings of wildlife and Banaras ghats dappled in vibrant colours hold one’s attention at once. At the threshold of deciding her future field of studies, she reveals, “While art will always be my major hobby, it is science that I want to take up.”