When divinity comes alive through colours

Brushstrokes

In our everyday lives, we keep on stressing about the smallest of issues citing endless reasons. The more we stress, the more colourless our lives seem to be. Establishing a link between peaceful living and colourful surroundings was a painting exhibition titled ‘Divine Glimpses’which was held in the capital, recently.

We all are familiar with the different forms of Hindu gods and goddesses, which artist Yograj Verma has attempted to capture in colourful patterns.

“Each of the colours enhance one aspect of life and have a soothing effect on mind,” said Verma.

Verma who works on Indian mythology as base and brings the different characters into lively backgrounds like green, blue, red, yellow etc said that his idea is to uphold the concept of the divine and the myths in the present scenario. Flamboyant colours in the paintings explicitly outlined the magnificence of each of the figures depicted. Vishnu, Krishna, Lakshmi and Hanuman paintings had a peculiar presentation of imbibing control over power. “I have depicted Lakshmi in yellow to suggest the flow of money or dhan while Panchmukhi Hanuman in green to reinforce the magnificence of his vajrakaaya or his solid frame which brings prosperity,” he explained, pointing at
the paintings.

Coming from an advertising background, Verma mentioned instances from his childhood that drove him to explore the concept of divinity and mythology. He shared with Metrolife, “When I was small, my grandparents used to tell me stories of god and how they used to look and what they used to do. So, I have seen my paintings of god grow in colour and whenever I had the brush in my hand, I used to feel at peace. Slowly, I started noticing people’s works and observing and meeting them. That is when I felt that there is some power that attracts us all and that power is god. Mythology contains many gods that people have never seen but have made different forms of the same almighty. So, I started depicting them in my colours.”

Describing his fascination for oil colours, he said, “Colours suit everybody’s home. Inner healing leads to the choice of colours that I pick. For instance, the brain picks yellow colour which the brush follows. That is how I have conceptualised each of the paintings.” 

He has a belief that paintings are his close friends with whom he can share everything besides his wife, Meena Verma. “This is not only a painting, it is my friend. Lot of times, you can’t share a lot of things. You can only share it with your painting and that is what happens with me,” he says.

Verma who has a studio in Delhi’s Patel Nagar displayed 20 works which he made over a span of two years. He points out that his paintings are only his interpretation of the lord. “This is only my imagination of god. Though there are different religions, this is my work. God is one even if he is worshipped in different forms across faiths.”