Jiva, artist Ompal Sansanwal’s historic solo show after 15 years, opens at Bikaner House on Saturday. Every canvas tells a story about the extraordinary journey of trees
man and Nature,” says
Ompal who accentuates the long intertwining roots of trees and its branches dense with foliage with diverse patterns of thread-like laments in his signature style to tell a distinct story.
There is a subtle yet powerful inspiration underpinning Ompal’s art. The earthy to bright harmonious colours that infuse his canvases with imagination and deep reection with the tree in the centre make for a mesmerising spectacle.
Tagore, for him, is a tall tree who lives on for his contributions and Ompal has made a singular portrait of the poet as a monochromatic study. “It is an emotive essence of deep intensity,” he says of his works that took him not less than two to three months each.
One of the largest panels, which took him seven months to complete, is a masterpiece measuring 8 feet by 4 feet. It depicts his childhood memory of lots of trees, his metaphor for life, with a diversity of ora and fauna and spaces around them. “It is in that inherent beauty of spaces in Nature that spiritual forms manifest,” he says.
Ompal’s paintings tell stories of man’s symbiotic bonds with Nature; they take dierent shapes to tell the story of Krishna holding aloft the Govardhan Hill or
Christ’s Last Supper, of Shiva and Parvati’s wedding, or even the Kurukshetra war.
“Ompal is a pilgrim who nds trees of his sensibility and sensitivity. When you look at them in his paintings, you feel a deep spiritual aura,” says Uma. “When I draw the trees, they come out in a meditative form as the cradle of existence,” Ompal adds.
Jiva is on display till May 3, at Main Art Gallery, Bikaner House (near India Gate); 11am to 7pm