Nature is her signature. At least that’s what she insists. Kolkata-based artist Rumki Mahapatra recently unveiled in her exhibition a bouquet of flora and foliage, cocooned inside the deep bowers of nature alongside the beauty of its precious elements like earth, wind, rain, fire and ether. Held at Kolkata’s Academy of Fine Arts, the exhibition of 26 exquisite paintings, adorned with acrylic colours on the canvas, was aptly titled Signature with an extra stress on the word nature to accentuate its predominant theme. From tall trees, budding blossoms, shades of different seasons, a slide of dawn-to-dusk, diverse moments and moods of the day, a deep blue sea to a fathomless ocean, she offered a pleasing array breathes with heart-touching aesthetics. “This is my debut solo oeuvre. Earlier, I had done a lot of group series. You see any art form is a spontaneous outburst of powerful thoughts, emotions and feelings. So as soon as I stepped into my art studio, which is my privy chamber, I kept contemplating what to conceptualise and create for this particular exposition. I had to search through my own core for inspiration. Then Mother Nature came to the fore to answer my quest, which resulted in these Signature specimens. It kind of bailed me out of a crisis of nothingness. So from an absolute cipher, you could perceive a prominent portrait with sketches and ornate imageries gradually taking shape to unfurl a whole new sequence,” the artist elaborates, recalling her journey from beginning to the end. Her latest collection is also for a good cause. The proceeds from it’s sales will go to Touchworld, a society dedicated to children of inmates at various correctional homes and their families across West Bengal. “This voluntary welfare organisation has moved me immensely with its guiding principle and the philanthropic work that it is diligently committed to. So at once I decided to stand by its cause in my own capacity. I can only pitch in my bit via my route, which is my art. If my contribution comes to benefit society, then that would make me happy and leave me a satisfied soul. I would consider it the greatest reward for my artistic work,” she says, immensely gratified. Mahapatra is also an entrepreneur, columnist, homemaker and a nature-obsessed traveller apart from her prominent identity as a painter. She refers to Tagore’s ardent love and worship for nature as an influence on her aesthetic leanings and pursuits. “The bard is an evergreen, eternal inspiration. And yes, there are others too from the league of great painters from both the occidental and oriental worlds,” she says. In fact, she had paid a thought-provoking tribute to the Nobel laureate at a group exhibition in February 2012 at Kolkata’s Chemould Gallery. Mahapatra had delivered a series on Tagore’s heroines. “There were seven significant women characters taken out of his widely celebrated literary works, namely, Damini, Krishnakali, Pujarini, Chitrangada, Prakriti, Nandini, Sreemati and Labanya,” she recounts. Nature was understandably mingled with the subject as the artist’s repertoire remains unfinished without the constant motif of nature. Having evolved as an artist over time, Mahapatra reveals that she occasionally fiddles with pastel chromes and water-tints besides her favourite acrylic dyes. Originally self-taught, she now hones her craft and technical skills under the tutelage of noted painter Rajib Sur Roy. “For the past three years, I have been learning the ropes from him which I find both engaging and enriching,” she says. Next, she plans to unpack a complete series, exclusively devoted to child characters, chosen from the gems of Bengali literature. She explains, “There are a lot of engrossing short-stories and novels with interesting minor characters that can be translated to the visual space.” She adds that there is an uncanny resemblance between a child and a sapling. “The connection is actually metaphorical. The way a tiny seedling elongates into a plant and then grows upwards to be a strong tree, similarly a child grows into an adult one fine day. So there are different stages to suggest different types of appearances in a single human life,” she explains. Last December, Mahapatra had presented a segment on Winter Witness, a series of landscapes in acrylic paints. Only time will tell whether she will revive the same series in an all-new form this year. As of now, we know that if autumn is here winter can’t be too far.
