Striking colours on canvas

Three figurative and representational artists exhibited their work at Kynkyny Arts recently. Titled Vivid, the well-known artists featured include H R Das, Sachin Jaltare and Sujata Achrekar.

H R Das is well-recognised for his series on cows and bulls. This collection of acrylics on canvas had bulls in various stages of action and motion splashed across the frame so strikingly that one could instantly recognise his style and subject matter. Cloaked in brilliant red, the bull appeared to charge out of a matador’s cape full of energy and movement. The whites of its eyes, the curve of its powerful back, the sweep and angle of its horns all of it spoke of energy, life and passion highly visible yet tightly leashed.
The background was filled in with intricately drawn tapestry like motifs and the softly textured designs provided a foil to the energy and movement of the bull in the foreground.

Smoky, maybe even soft and fudgy, yet very compelling best describes Hyderabad based artist Sachin Jaltare’s  work. Faces filled his mixed-media canvases, those of men and women in shades of charcoal, beige, brown, taupe with bright red or yellow ochre touches in the eyes, lips or foreheads. The effect was interesting, quite hypnotic even.
The finely shaped features of the female subjects and their male counterparts with pouty full lips or narrow shaped ones hidden behind the shadow of facial hair, their sultry eyes appeared sometimes as a pair linked intrinsically together or sometimes individually and totally distinct. Whether highlighting the man-woman equation and the chemistry and connect between them or whether he portrayed them as two distinct individual, poles apart and totally disconnected, Jaltare made them work both ways.

Full of rich colours and vibrant hues, embellished with Sanskrit texts, Sujata Achrekar's paintings of brahmin boys were very striking. Her work was characterised by large depictions of facial features that were subtly distorted yet calmly representational of her pet theme and subject. With shades of Buddha's reflections coming across in her portraits there was nonetheless a pleasing strong individuality that was striking and attractive.