Aug 31, 2017

Art and Artists


Shashi’s works offer an entirely new perspective on the Sea and make us view the Sea as a living entity. The Sea is the enigmatic female figure, who's waking hours are spent in the company of her lover, the Sun. Her paintings speak of the pining between these two primal forces of Nature, at times they are entwined in a passionate embrace, and at others they convey a desperate yearning to end the separation. Her portrayal of the tale of mystical romance between the Sun and the Sea is unique and precise.
                                            
Whorls of life

Shashi’s paintings are characterized by the sheer vibrancy and orchestration of colours. She believes that paintings should evoke a sense of joy and pleasure rather than create dark and gloomy vibes, as misery and suffering already exist all around us. In all her works there is an underlying feel of a flow of energy and waves. She believes that at the ultimate level, the Universe is made up of nothing but vibrations or waves. These energy waves are constantly flowing and merging and re-emerging. Her works invariably contain these cosmic waves.

How can an Indian artist escape the rich cultural heritage of India? With the Sea as the theme, Shashi has brought out on canvas the mythological aspects of the oceans. The genesis of life and Sagar Manthan- the mythical churning of the oceans have, been interpreted in an imaginative and fresh style.
                                                     
The Genesis

Sagar Manthan


Matasy Avtar


The Cosmic Egg


Although Shashi uses bright colours, there is always a white space standing out in the mélange of colors. This whiteness, unique to her paintings, denotes the 'all' of the particular painting. After all, white is nothing but a fusion of all colours; white encompasses every colour. White stands for Truth and Purity. White is the backdrop on which the entire story of the Universe is played out. The intricate work against the backdrop of whiteness conveys the story of the painting. In other words, while the painting is a page, the white strip is a chapter and Shashi's paintings are a book which narrates the story of the Sea as never seen before. This vision transcends language and is almost never visible to the human eye.

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