JOIN USA woman sitting with her eyes closed appears calm as a stork takes flight in front of her. The water is calm with white flowers floating at untimely intervals.
One could almost hear the jarring noise of the stork breaking the soft ripple of water if all this hadn’t been captured in the colours of Aruna Tewari’s painting ‘Reverie’, displayed as part of the recently concluded exhibition ‘Dimensions of Love’.
Tewari takes the ‘woman’ as her muse to define the emotion of ‘love’ in 21 paintings. Created in bright hues, the artworks (some of which are quite big in size) speak aloud of the artist’s love for birds, style of using geometric patterns and admiration
for nature.
It is appreciable that the artist not just title her works but also pens down her thoughts about each work, alongside the canvases. “Every time I cannot be present in the gallery to answer a viewer’s curiosity about a painting.
Therefore, I choose to describe my work,” says Tewari admitting that she is in love with the feathered beings even in real life.
Be it her work titled ‘Melodious Ecstasy’ or ‘Soul in Stone’, the birds enjoy a significant place in her canvas. Tewari explains, “The birds are a beautiful part of our nature and to me they are also symbolic as messengers of love.
In the artwork ‘Soul in Stone’, it is the presence of colourful birds that makes the statue of the woman appear real.”
Her painted figures have high aesthetics in almost all the works. But it is important to see beyond the artworks to observe the use of geometric patterns. In the ‘Nostalgic Soliloque’, a pretty lady cuddles up while lost in her thoughts.
But, a major portion of the canvas is dedicated to a background filled with geometric patterns.
The technique enhances Tewari’s artworks and compels a female viewer to look beyond the artist’s thought in the painting and perceive it as their mirror image.
While the ‘Unfettered’ portrays a modern girl literally sitting on top of a city with skyscrapers, in ‘Celestial Clairvoyance’, the woman is represented as a good listener to the man whose eyes are shown closed – just as Goddess Parvati admires Lord Shiva in meditation.
On the contrary, in ‘Joie de Vivre’ and ‘Nymph’, the female is shown as true representation of the emotion of calmness.
Another significant point is the use of one colour by the artist in different shades that adds to the depth of Tewari’s work and makes the paintings a reflection of a woman’s life, when in love.