Jatin Das's first show in city begins today

AHMEDABAD: "I am showing my works for the first time in Ahmedabad. And I may never get an opportunity to exhibit them here again, because mounting a show is very cumbersome."
If one lives and breathes through one's work like Jatin Das, artist par excellence, poet and art educator, mounting would surely feel like putting up your heart and soul for display.
In his usual buoyant and restless self, the artist fussed on how not to put a finger on the paint, and how to balance larger paintings with smaller ones during the process of mounting his large collection of works at Ahmedabad ni Gufa on the eve of the exhibition.
"Painting is not illustration, or picture making. You work with a direction in mind when you start painting, but then the painting starts directing you." Metaphors start pouring in ample measures, "When a stream runs through a forest, it works its way through the hindrances and creates a natural instinctive path. My paintings also flow naturally, instinctively."
As you gaze at his distinctively flowing hues turning into the figurative, etching human bodies with grace and robustness, you wonder how the grossness of human anatomy can be tinted with such aesthetics. The artist denies any conscious thought, "I do not worry about aesthetics. I just paint, like I eat. There is no story to tell. The process of painting is more important than the final work."
The process, with Das, is exhaustive, illuminating, enlightening. Few students from MSU Vadodara have come to Ahmedabad to be with the man and learn. For them, learning is constant. One of them questions whether displaying a large amount of work would not distract the viewers' focus, the artist explains, "When you have your beloved standing among 50 other girls, you do not look at each one of them. A painting will also draw focus, no matter how many of them are together."
The works are part of a travelling exhibition by Gallery Art and Soul, Mumbai, which he had already taken to Mumbai, Jaipur and Vadodara. The exhibition is on from April 12 till April 24 from 4 to 8 pm.