Cityscape (Realistic)

Cityscapes

Having been experimenting with space, line and form for the past 7 years, after several deliberations,I arrived at a series of paintings titled ‘Visual Sensibilities-The Metro’.This was based on my city’s latest development, the Metro Construction, which happened to be the subject for my first solo show in 2015.During this period,I watched a somewhat traditional city grow into a contemporary one with towering sky scrapers.The heavy metro construction has resulted in chaotic traffic and emotional unsettlement among the people.In this series,I have tried to bring out my impression of this busy advancing city,which I perceive as moving and stationary lines.The initial works are impressionistic based on the cluster of the city while the later works are based on lines.As the integration of lines with space create visual expressions,I have used that to attain the rhythm associated with space and time.

Dusky Dawn II | Oil on Canvas | 48"x36" | July 2020

Nostalgic Nineties;

At a glance, this may look like a typical day in 2021 in a buzzing neighbourhood on a hot afternoon. However, this imagery is a piece of a bigger story– all in little adventurous mind of a 6 years old me. Our mind is a beautiful place because when I see this painting now, I smell the sensuous amalgamation of hot fritters, brewing filter coffee and that nagging turpentine wafting from our neighbouring house. One thing about nostalgia though,is that it makes one, who are in the depths of their adulthood, yearn for the innocence and simplistic ritual back in their childhood. My days were pretty structured, the little me would agree. First stop was for a chocolate treat to keep me happy, and an excuse for my mom to have some sweet. Next will be one of the bi-weekly international, to catch up with the cool aunts and endearing grandmother. Of that twenty minutes of fighting over the feeble line and talking over incessant choir of honks from the passing Ambassador cars, we would retreat back home , while I point at the murky oil tins under the store bench for the 100th time, and my mom acknowledging my curiosity, for the 100th time.

Everything in this frame is simple, But nothing of it is simple. In the balayage of browns and beige, I tried to encapsulate the neighbourly warmth. Even in a still imagery, I could feel the joyous symphony of the everyday bustle of Chennai where you certainly can’t witness anywhere else in the world.