KASHMIR VISTAS …..NEERJA KAUL KALIA’S SOLO ART EXHIBITION … NOSTALGIC LANDSCAPES
Neerja Kaul Kalia is a writer, teacher, advertising and marketing professional, television producer and an accomplished artist. Not that only ,she is seriously connected with an organization doing some humane and compassionate work for poor and underprivileged children. Neerja remains busy with her work without caring for any publicity or what is known as media attention. She keeps a low profile yet her pen and brush create something comparable to some established names in the world of art and literature. Married to Col N K Kalia and having moved to various locations with her husband, Neerja Kalia’s sensitivity and observations are sharp and diverse . She lives in Gurugram ( Haryana ) .
Daughter of Padama-Shri Pran Kishore Kaul (eminent writer, painter and broadcaster) and well-known writer cum broadcaster Shanta Kaul, Neerja carries a well-groomed taste for fine arts from her parents. She has authored some books including books for children. I read and reviewed her short story collection 'Fauji Heart' for some newspapers and magazines. It deserves to be widely read for its stories, style and gripping narration. The writer in her is as brilliant as the painter that she happens to be. I saw her exhibition at the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. It was held for 3 days from 22 to 24th of September 2023. The solo exhibition, held in a spacious hall on the ground floor provided easy access to the art lovers of the capital who thronged to visit it inspite of the hot and humid climate. I saw more youngsters amongst the visitors. In all, 39 landscapes were on display and almost all of them were inspired by the incredible beauty of Kashmir, her homeland. Done in oils and impasto on canvas and canvas board, these paintings are a result of dedicated work for about eight years. I am informed that Neerja has exhibited her art previously as well; a solo show at Taj Palace, New Delhi ( 2014 ), another solo at Marriott Courtyard and another at Epicenter Gurgaon ( 2015 ). I came to know that her paintings adorn the walls of some corporate offices and private homes. There is a demand for her work as I saw one painting on display marked ‘ SOLD ‘. I am informed that there have been some more 'SOLD OUTS' apart from regular telephone calls from the prospective buyers. About her art , Neerja has this to say :-
” As a little girl I would clean my father’s paintbrushes for him and that’s when my love for painting first started. My father is a multi-faceted artiste of the Kashmir valley. One of his passions is painting and it was from him that I learned to work with Oils from an early age.I certainly was introduced to many old masters by my father but I was also influenced by Shri Ghulam Rasool Santosh. Oil paintings tend to be much more layered and deeper than acrylics. Yes it takes more skill and time to weave a painting with Oils but I find the painting ‘ages’ in the process and that gives it a unique dimension .I have been influenced by many artists and genres but painting primarily with palette knives and choosing themes close to my heart brings out the best in me. I love to play with light in my paintings. I am forever fascinated by how I can vary the direction and intensity of light in a painting to play-up the foreground or highlight the background and direct the gaze of the observer."
Landscape art arrived in India through travelling European artists who brought the aesthetic of painting mountains, rivers and trees against the sky and a distant horizon—nature as a subject in itself —to Indian art, where it had traditionally only formed a backdrop in narrative-driven, figural paintings. Right to this day, there is hardly any Indian artist who has not worked in this genre. One can safely include Abanindranath Tagore, Nand Lal Bose, Jamini Roy, Raja Ravi Verma, N S Bendre, Akbar Padamsee, S H Raza, Satish Gujral, D C Joglekar, G R Santosh, Sobha Singh, Ram Kumar F N Souza, M F Husain, Haren Das, and many more including the latest sensation in the world of art known as Raqib Shaw. However, Neerja’s landscapes in the exhibition are something different. Different in terms of subject and colour application.These aesthetic landscapes have the key elements: line, form, texture, colour and scale in addition to presenting, forests, mountains, hills, waterfalls, cottages, clouds, snow-clad peaks, lakes, streams, natural vegetation, flowers and seasons of her homeland. Profoundly representational and also impressionistic in some ways, these landscapes evoke a strong nostalgia and strike a deep chord with the viewers in general. To the viewers from the Kashmir valley, this exhibition was a journey through the lived seasons, flora, fauna and colours Through some paintings, Neerja has successfully tried to paint the effects of light and weather. She has mostly chosen the sunset time for these typical landscapes. Rich, diverse, and enthralling, there is something gloriously satisfying about these landscapes. Imbued with magical qualities of serenity and depth, these landscapes can make the environment cool, ambient and rejuvenating in the heat and humidity of the plains of the country apart from instantly connecting the viewer with Mother Earth. Sun and moon have also been used in many of her landscapes to reflect interplay of light and objects. Possibly , these have also been used to make the tint, hue ,shade and tone of some landscapes look natural .
Neerja uses colours to evoke powerful emotional responses like a sense of peace and calm or excitement and energy. Her colours also show coolness or warmth, lightness or darkness. Her colours build on the structure and framework of the landscape and set the viewer’s mood. The red colour she uses in painting tulips immediately evokes a sense of love and warmth . This red coloured tulips painting in particular comes closer to ‘Field of Poppies’ by Vincent Van Gogh. Her yellow, blue and green play some soul-soothing effects. Her yellow mustard fields evoke deep nostalgia. Like a master, she has skillfully put to use some analogous colours in her landscapes. One can also discern the usage of complimentary colours in many of her landscapes on display. The artist has also exhibited her sense of colour intensity through many landscapes. In some landscapes, there is multiple colour combination to usher in spring, cool hues of green and blue in the summer, warm and vibrant colours in the autumn, and calm shades during the winter. These colours have also enhanced the spatial quality of her landscapes. Some cool colours tend to recede in the landscapes, or seem farther away, whereas warm colours advance, or appear closer. In choosing colours for these landscapes, one feels the artist has properly evaluated the changing sun and shade patterns throughout the day and seasons that have an impact on colour choice.
The wonderful landscapes on display represent deep nostalgia in colours, drawings, shapes and scenes. These landscapes have attractive titles like, The titles were like Golden Glory. Peace, Hope, Faith, Crumbling Moon , Warmth, Flow of life etc. For those who no longer live in the Kashmir valley, this exhibition is like a cool breeze in hot and humid environments. Neerja's work is comparable to the landscape work of any well known artist on the National Scene .
( Avtar Mota )
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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