About the exhibition:
The sense of space, the soft muted color, the strong light source all add up to a wonderful interpretation of city life. I love the mysterious mood Das creates in this piece. His technical ability in handling paint using both transparency and solid forms create a convincing place I lingered for many moments.
This, too, is a painting that calls your attention upon first glance. The self-assured use of the paint brush to “indicate” instead of “state” the subject before the artist, is not as easy as it would appear. This takes years of training and practice. The diminution of scale and value that suggests recession to the background comes to life moving into the foreground with vibrant simple yet suggestive stokes. Look at one area of the painting and you cannot say precisely what is going on. But look at the entire painting and it all tells a story.
About Swaraj Das' Work:
I am a contemporary Indian full-time artist, drawing inspiration from the works of artists such as Rembrandt, John Singer Sargent, and Pablo Picasso. While it is nearly impossible to capture one’s subject as is, I like to give paintings a sense of feeling. I like to give light and shade a visual feel.
I play with brush strokes, colours, light and shade, endeavouring to transfer positive energy and emotion onto the canvas. When I paint, it is an almost surreal experience, where I lose a sense of self and time, and am wholly absorbed in my creation. Like many creative people, I do my best work in the peace and calm of night, undisturbed by the demands and interruptions of daily life.
The first step towards creating one of my paintings is a sketch I pencil in my layout book. I draw inspiration from numerous things I witness in daily life, and while I don’t always have my camera handy, my layout book is a constant companion. My sketches serve as a marker or a map, as it were, to create my paintings from memory, often after many years have elapsed. I have no concrete plan to create a painting for the sake of creating one, it’s rather a subconscious urge that’s manifests itself into a conscious passion and commands me to re-create memory on canvas.
The way I think, the way I perceive and the things that inspire me are in a continual state of evolution, much like a living organism. I instinctively know when painting is complete. The time it takes for me to complete a painting varies. The longest I have worked on a single piece has been a month. My preferred medium is water color. I am not a man of words. My goal is to communicate my passion, perspectives, and reflections on life through my paintings. I let my work speak for itself. My advice to aspiring artists is to have passion and perseverance.
The exhibition will be on display at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Art Gallery from 9th - 14th June, 2014 - 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.