Impressions by Lakeer

While some of you sip your tea, I sip it with a deep sense of feeling content. Yes, as an artist it always feels nice to connect with another artist’s artwork. I do feel that from time to time......today more so. Lakeer has opened its Impressions, a group show at the Art Loft, above the Volvo showroom on Alexandra road. The Cocktail reception is this evening and the featured artists are, Pramod Kumar, Manoj Sakale, Hema Guha and Ram Chandra. While evenings have become a little difficult to manage, it was also my curiosity that brought me to the show before everyone else. The wall space for the display has the natural daylight and the spotlights letting you imagine how the works of art would feature in your private space as well. While Pramod Kumar’s water colours have a following on their own it was Manjokumar Sakale and Hema Guha’s work that left me very satiated. Ram Chandra’s works were colourful to say the least, and will have a home with the urban home maker who is looking for that right touch of ethnic. Manojkumar’s work is true to himself, its honest heart-felt work and whenever an artist is true to himself it’s not the technique or the skill that you marvel at but it’s the sheer joy to see that he/she has dared to be just that....true. When you see his work you can tell he is a rural raised person trying to trace the urban space or lack of it in the fast changing world. The one painting you will come back with is “Chess” and aerial view of the game and its players. The quiet games of chess the restless patience of the opponent’s move, the happy moment spent playing with a dear one; so many themes all covered in the simple act of chess and then carefully engraved as the metaphor of the endless chess board of life. (see attached image....but please go see the original work as well). Hema Guha, an artist who is now exploring the multimedia has a impressive resume, but more than that what impresses me is her quirky work. She dares to be different. Lakeer has brought in a lot of her woodcut work and the details, in these are amazing. The semi folk observation with figures in sometimes a huddled group patterns, evolve all to tell a story. A story that does not spring upon the viewer but subtly remains on her paper and yet creates a lasting impression be it through the strong colours she uses or the lack of any colour at all in the rest of the sheet. Precision and symmetry are something she makes look simple and childlike and beautifully lasting in the mind’s eye. As an artist I am allowed to be partial but I must tell you that normally though I do not speak much of water colour artists, Pramod Kumar’s Benares series, are a pleasure to watch. There are two especially with their technique that reminded me of Chinese water colour paintings......yes go see it and let me know if you felt the same way. Yes I will go back to my tea while you prepare this evening to go and check out the art over your glass of wine.