The Faces of my friends
Perfect pictures
A gallerist once intently showed me some pictures of exotic flowers that he had clicked in a green-house garden during his recent foreign tour and he thought those would be excellent reference pictures for my work. He further told me with a please-do-appreciate-tone that he had taken the pictures solely for me. I was flattered, but at the same time a bit annoyed when he had asked me to paint a series of paintings on exotic flowers. I was quiet, noncommittal. I wanted to tell him that I must live my subject. Each flowering plant, irrespective of their social status, I must befriend, meet in rain and sunshine, feel excited to see them coming to live in a garden, on a vacant plot or peeping through the cracks of tiled pavements; un-noticed. It takes months and years before I feel like painting them. I wished I could tell him the joy of turning a humble flowering weed into a fine work of art. Exoticness is another word of little importance to me. Most wild flowers are elegant yet simple shaped. When in bloom the joy of life shows through. My friends surely know life.
Fragmented realism, Zigzags and 180 degree
For a brief period between the year 2003 and 2007, I came under the spell of non-figurative art. It all started like this. At the end of 2001 I shifted to my new apartment on the outskirts of Delhi. It was a newly built township, planned typically with clusters of multi-storied residential blocks running along the long stretches of roads. A monotonous sky-line repeated itself. I had never lived before with so many straight lines, sharp edges and zigzag corners. A tedious repetition of the same geometric shapes sent my visual experience into a tizzy. The places I lived in before were urban and semi urban in nature, had their individualistic charm of haphazard growth. Overnight, I plonked into a space of visual ennui. Gradually I began getting used to my new surroundings without knowing that I was absorbing the visual nuances of new kind like a sponge soaks up water. Then after two years, one evening it happened. The whole experience erupted like a mega boil. I kept painting feverishly on a series of non-figurative paintings. Those I thought were abstract expressions and I was making my own images up. Later, when the fever subsided, I took a pause. And only to find that they were random impressions of surroundings with no rational connectivity. Could these paintings be called abstract? I found the question annoying. These are unmistakably sparse impressions of a metropolis,− a fragmented realism. So, why not just look at something and paint it the way it is? Finally the time had come to take a 180 degree turn.
Purplue Star
I didn’t know her real name. Her purple-blue petals fuse into a five-pointed drooping star. I call her Purplue Star. It is a scrubby bush covered with murderous silvery thorns to fend off predators. With the jagged grey-green leaves that look rather complex in contrast to the drooping star-shaped purple flowers and green striped lemon size fruits, the plant is anything but beautiful. There are others; a dwarf variety of Ipomoea that grows into a heap of tangled vines dotted with tiny mauve flowers, double-petal grass florets, milky sap-oozing Aak, White Dhatura and its thorny fruits, some runners, others are creepers, some grow in clusters, others in isolation. Once they were in abundance – a natural habitat for monitor lizards, mongooses, field mice and others. Often the slow paced monitor lizard family was seen crossing a mud track in the morning sun or the nimble footed mongoose parents with babies foraging through the grass. Their long, thin shadows kept shifting in a hide and seek manner. Now these are all past memories since the Delhi Development Authority began developing community parks. The place has become a joggers’ park and a manicured garden. An intimidating sign forbids entry to pets, cyclists and children with the intention of playing football or cricket. My soul let out curses; damn the doom-doers.
I have stopped going there. I know my friends don’t live there anymore.
A Japanese artist
The simplest and the most effective picture of stillness I’ve ever seen was painted by a Japanese artist. Seiju Omoda painted a quiet summer day when even the cicadas fall silent. I liked this picture so much that I asked my friend if I could take the calendar when the year ended. The calendar had some paintings of chrysanthemums that Japanese artists paint with great ease. Since then every winter I paint some chrysanthemums. The variety of this plant family is huge. The flowers of no two seasons are of the same variety. Chrysanthemums are naturally picturesque and make good painting subjects. This elegant flowering plant lifts my soul, perhaps the way it has been doing for Japanese artists.
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This time I am sharing a video of my sketches and showing some preparatory studies too specially those for Delhi through the Seasons – a book of nature in Delhi by Khushwant Singh. I hope these will provide viewers with some insights.
Suddhasattwa Basu
New Delhi
February 2, 2019
Return of the Magpie Robin, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 22” x 36”, 2017
Purple Stars and other Wild Flowers, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 22” x 36”, 2017 – 18
Winter Chrysanthemums, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 14” x 20”, 2014
Busking in the Winter Sun, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 14” x 20”, 2014
Cassia alata; study, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 9” x 10.75”, 2011
Chrysanthemums; study, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 9” x 10.75”, 2012
Christ plant; study, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 9” x 10.75”, 2015
Chrysanthemums; study, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 9” x 10.75”, 2012
Hollyhocks; study, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 9” x 10.75”, 2011
Pomegranate Flower; study, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 9” x 10.75”, 2011
Garden Poppy; study, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 9” x 10.75”, 2015
Lotus, dragonfly and a jacana, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 12” x 20”, 2016
The Last Petal, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 12” x 20”, 2016
Lotus, Dragonfly and a Kingfisher, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 12” x 20”, 2016
Lotus and a Pair of Ducks, Artist: Suddhasattwa Basu, watercolour on paper, 12” x 20”, 2016
