Graphite works on ‘tremendous power of nature’ to be exhibited in Delhi

New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS) The realisation of the tremendous power of nature, after viewing a dark storm entering a city from afar on a train, inspired artist-animator Anupama Chatterjee Hara to create extensive graphite works that take one to open landscapes.

Hara, who would exhibit 30 paintings at the Triveni Kala Sangam here from March 2 in an exhibition called "Lightning in the Greys", said the grandeur and power of nature is the essential inspiration behind the series of "black and white semi-abstract landscape works".

"These days you can only see the horizon from a long distance when you are out in the wilds. I was in a train, and I saw a storm from a distance," Hara told IANS about the memory of an incoming monsoon storm, a moment captured on a long-distance train journey to east India.

Hara's works, whether they capture a cloud burst or a mountain side, seem to be the painted versions of black and white photographs, but full of "randomness and textural mark making due to the wildness of the inspirational memory".

While the train journey might have led to the realisation of humans being very small in front of nature, colour seemed to dilute the power and potency that she wanted to evoke as she re-experienced the memory through her creative process.

"The details in it are determined by what has happened on the surface, and they might not have been put there consciously. I enjoy that play," Hara, who had long been an animator in the broadcast industry, said.

For the former student of the National Institute of Design, art has always been therapeutic, an escape, a stepping away from the current chaotic world. Calming as her canvases seem, they also invite viewers to partake in this stepping away.

"Lightning in the Greys" will run from March 2-11 here.