Art street awash with colourful stories

BANGALORE: Vibrant with landscapes, abstracts, portraits, knife-etched renditions and visual extracts from dried coffee bean, KumaraKrupa Road was awash with artistic expressions in real and dream time.
Hosted by the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, the Chitra Santhe on Sunday drew people of all kinds, young and old, artistic and otherwise. And they walked into the artist's world, to discover, internalize and eternalize their renditions, as they took back paintings and sketches to match the attitude of their homes.
"I just bought a painting by an artist called Bhaskar. It's a picture of Christ, with his back to the Cross. It was an instant buy - I was attracted to the subtle colours and the inherent story, although I'm not a religious person at all," said well-known advertizing photographer Harmeet Singh, as he sauntered up the artist's walkway, assimilating the drift of colours and their tones.
Setting colour tone to image, hobby artist Chandana had chosen the coffee bean to flavour the moods of her images. "I love playing with colours and tones, experimenting with light and dark shades. I was somehow drawn to the coffee seed this time around as a tool for my art, perhaps because I was intrigued by it, for I don't drink coffee at all," she beamed, as visitors to the Santhe stopped by to examine this subtle and solid art of visual story-telling.
Then again, solidity is a cutting-edge craft, weaning the story of a ship at sea and a woman selling bananas, groove upon groove, even as the canvas throws up stark colours, as endowed by the natural world.
"My tool is the knife and brush to a very small extent. When the light is right, I walk up to the spot I'm drawn to, and sit for close to eight hours, until I've brought into the canvas, the picture my eye sees," said Pradip Sutar, an artist from Ichalakaranji in Maharashtra.
In tandem with this larger-than-life indigenous artistic sensibility, artist Gubendhiran Kuberan from Pondicherry displayed paintings of people and the sea, interlinked not by straight lines and curves, but by myriad fish, swimming with the tide to complete the tale. "I come from a fishing family and find the fish to be an independent animal," said the painter, who also connects to his roots to construct sand sculptures back home in Pondicherry.
Detour to Orissa, and the curiously smitten half-smile of 'Purima' cries for attention. It's a pencil sketch by Soman Patnaik, who captured his grandmother, who lives in Puri, the very first time she looked at her great grandson. "I couldn't resist capturing Purima's expression on camera and then going on to sketch it," smiled Soman, who's given up an IT job to explore his artistic leanings.
Not unlike Soman, Suba Balachandran has emerged out of the shadows after years of perfecting the intricate lines that define Kerala mural art. "I realized that my wife had, until now, been giving away this highly-valued skill as gifts to near and dear ones," beamed her husband Subash Balachandran.
In this art market, what lured artistic sensibilities were fresh, imaginative works. Designer-artist Arwin D'Souza found some figurative paintings particularly interesting, while student artist Mithila R Baindur sought out artist Nazim's cloth sculptures.
MUSIC AND POETRY
If spontaneity triggers artistic sensibility, it was inherent at the Chitra Santhe, through instant music and theatre performances drawing an interesting mix of onlookers.
Iranian student Nasim, along with other students studying at CKP from her country, performed to an Iranian folk music piece, strummed to remix by Allanagar on the guitar. Andrea Pereira and Stephanie Madurai from the Space Theatre Ensemble, Goa, performed a poetic piece titled 'What sort of world will we leave behind for our children', in an endeavour to save the environment.
ALL FOR THE GAME
Up for exhibit at the main annexe of CKP was the World Cup brought home by India's visually-impaired cricket team led by a Karnataka lad. In tune with the cause of promoting cricket among the visually impaired, connoisseurs got to touch the trophy and buy cricket balls for a small fee of Rs 100.
Taking the initiative across genders, NGO Samarthanam is poised towards promoting visually-impaired women cricketers.