Textures of an artist

For artist Smita Jain, who never thought she would ever display her work at an art gallery, and that too with established artists, it was a chance meeting with artist Jyoti Kalra a month back that changed her perception.

As part of Rangotsav, a recently held group exhibition of paintings and sculptures, at Lalit Kala Akademi, Jain displayed seven of her paintings alongside renowned artists like Nawal Kishore and Kamal Devnath. “I never thought I would do a show in a gallery if it wasn’t for the chance meeting with her. It was a proud moment for my children as well to have their mother’s work exhibited,” the 43-year-old artist tells Metrolife.

She adds, “Until and unless you display the work and move out to show your work, you can’t understand your own potential. It boosted my self-confidence.”

Though she was inclined towards arts since childhood, she has been an artist specialising in textures in her works only since the last eight years. She says, “I was inclined towards art since childhood as my grandfather was a good artist but I pursued it only since the last eight years. When I shifted to Delhi-Gurgaon from Mumbai a year back, it seemed like the ideal time to take it more rigorously as Delhi is an artists’ hub.”

As a graduate in textile designing, colours and textures have been her forte. Displaying the same elements as part of her debut exhibition, she elucidates, “I have always been strong with colours because of the textile designing course. There can be as many colours as there are moods of a person and that is what I depicted in the show.”

Describing her portrayal of “spiritual awakening” in her nature-inspired work, she mentions, “There is always a thought behind a painting. If you are reading something or seeing, mostly the scriptures, it inspires you to do more. According to Jainism, unless one is detached from the materialistic aspect, one can’t connect with one’s inner self and that is what one of my paintings, Serenity, displays with two heads out of a single human figure.” Using acrylic paints, pieces of cloth, sponge, comb, spatula, the mixed media artwork, she says, is one of her “best works”.

While she will soon be exhibiting in Mumbai, Jain is happy with the response to her first attempt. “It is generally considered that group art exhibits overshadow one artist’s work over other artists, but that was not the case here despite the fact that there were many established artists,” she says.