Dabbling in new-age art

Dr Kumudhini shares her tryst with the art of hyper-realism and Hyderabad-based artist Pavani Komandur explains the meditative art form ‘Zentangle’ - both the artists showcase their works at Art Mela 2017 at State Art Gallery

To celebrate 13th anniversary, the State Gallery of Art is conducting an ART MELA 2017 where 150 artists and 100 students from five schools are displaying their art works. We catch up with two artists, whose works are attracting a lot of attention at the mela, for their finesse and uniqueness.

Dr B Kumudhini, artist and art instructor, shares her journey as an artist. “I am a self-taught artist. I have done my education in dental field. I liked to paint, but there was no proper guidance for me, because my education was different. So, I left my dental profession completely; and later on joined BFA (Bachelor in Fine Arts in Painting) in Mysore.”

She explains her work, ‘Hyper-Realism’- Realism means what we generally see and draw and hyper is the concept beyond that, which you capture on camera at higher level. I displayed 15 of my works.

Realism is also in food, there are some people who draw images of burgers, pizza and sandwich. But there is nothing to represent India. So, I just wanted to put the feel of India and have recreated street food served on a newspaper.

I tried to capture food from different regions had with tea.” Kumudhini used acrylic on canvas. “The concept of hyper-realism is properly replicating the photograph. That is how it looks real in the painting.”

“My painting on chai (tea) is important because according to me, it is a binding factor of India. My other work is ‘Mirchi Bajji’ took almost one month to complete. I had taken this food with culture of India out of the streets. I want everyone to connect with my art works.”

Hyderabad-based artist Pavani Komandur said, “I have done my post graduation in commerce from Kranti Degree College. Through social media I got to know about this art form called ‘Zentangle’. It’s a meditative art from.

There are some structure patterns and certified course for Zentangle we need to take. I am self-taught artist. I have been almost doing this since five years. This is not painting; the whole art is done with a black pen. It is done only with free hand.”

She explains, “I used to keep doing such designs. For a small piece of painting – 3`` X 3 `` - it takes at least two to three hours and a larger painting takes around four days to complete. It is a meditating art form like yoga.

It increases concentration, focus and there is no age limit to do this art. You can learn 2 or 3 basic patterns, and you can create number of designs from it.”

“I used micron pen to draw on paper. For filling, we use a thicker pen. Just like there are different numbers in brushes, there are different nibs available in pens. My theme for the art mela is ‘Enchanting Buddha’,” she adds.