Festive hues on canvas

Veteran artist Jayasri Burman's works are narratives of strong women painted in a profusion of turmeric and black

One of the participants at the recently-concluded India Art Fair 2020, Jayasri Burman, 60, belongs to a family of artists. Her works showcase the varied experiences she has had through the last six decades of her glorious career. And the one on display at the art fair, titled ‘Journey’, is small in size but rich in details. The works shows a woman holding a boat (depicting our life journey) with many persons around her (depicting that in life we never travel alone — we need to make this journey along with others).

Jayasri Burman, married to another renowned artist Paresh Maity, showed extreme fascination towards painting diverse creations based on nature since her childhood days. The essence of her paintings takes its vitality from the innumerable festivals she grew up seeing and experiencing and their fascinating impressions. After completing her Masters in Arts from the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, she landed up in Paris to hone her skills in printmaking under the able guidance of Monsieur Ceizerzi.

As a child, when she admired the stars and clouds, they always appealed to her and drove her towards the world of beauty and nature. She often says with pride, “my father’s philosophical attitude towards life was that trigger which shaped my creative journey.” The renowned artist Ganesh Haloi inspired her very much. She took valuable guidance from him by spending a lot of time reading his diaries. Spending time with him acted as a morale booster for her who was about to enter into the world of Art and its wonderful intricacies.

Painting emotions

Being a lover of nature and its magnificent attractions, she responded well to her intuitions, which acted as a vehicle to drive her towards chasing her dreams. Being a descendent of a Bengali family, renowned for its unique culture, she was very much influenced by the festivities, the attire, the rituals and the narratives of strong women.

When Jayasri paints, it is like she is putting her emotions out on canvas. It gives her immense happiness to see the colourful manifestation of her thoughts and this makes her realise her own talent of expression of art. She is the one whose creative vision has been shaped by her experiences, which makes her use rich strong hues and bold themes with a mythic element — strange hybrid animals with human heads and female figures.

Since colours are synonymous with artists, she has her favourites — turmeric and black with which she adorns her creations and gives a lively look. She often points out vividly that painting is a genre that is very meditative, so she has special inclination towards it.

Influences from the epics

Apart from being an acclaimed artist of the generation, she is an avid reader of stories by the great noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who has influenced her a lot.

She is also fond of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, which are replete with values, she feels. She feels there is so much to see and do in the world and so much is yet to be absorbed.

Jayasri Burman’s zeal and enthusiasm pushed her to spread cheerfulness around, which is unquestionably an amazing manifestation of a stunning and contented spirit of the artist. One of her valued achievements, she recollects with a gleam in her eyes, has been a series of commemorative stamps of her works by the Government of India, which was released on the occasion of the International Women’s Day in 2007. In 1985, she became the proud recipient of the National Award and subsequently was invited to the President’s House as an Artist-in-Residence. She has also won several other prestigious awards. Along with many solo shows, ‘Mythical Universe’ and ‘Antaryatra’ are the two publications she has in her name.

Her works have been exhibited across India and abroad, in Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Germany, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco and many other places.