Inspirations
Story behind-the-art
It is often said that over time, we become what we love.
Like most children, my first encounter with colours was in nursery when I found green and yellow to be the most fascinating of colours. Orange came next. For this reason, I was almost fixated with Parle’s Poppins (a candy in colours) and it had nothing to do with sweets! In fact I do not even like sweets and never had a sweet tooth. The colours intrigued me.
On a visit to Jorasanko, the place where Rabindranath Tagore (India’s only poet Nobel Laureate) was born and where he breathed his last, I saw the original artworks of Abanindranath Tagore for the very time. And I was simply spellbound by the use of simple oil pastels and fabric colours in his work. The artworks had an ethereal quality and they left a huge impact on me that afternoon. I could feel the colours in me. I had come to pay homage to the one who taught me to have a ‘mind without fear’, and I walked out with a new gift of the world of oil pastels. Abanindranath Tagore was the nephew of the polymath, Rabindranath Tagore, and belonged to the erstwhile Tagore family who was at the forefront of the Bengal Renaissance, Brahmo Samaj movement and contextual Modernism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in India. We can read about their immense contributions made to Bengal art, music, literature and education in addition to Nationalism in India. Apart from being a prolific painter, he was also a noted writer and I remember very fondly, his cherished story, Khirer Putul (Sugar Doll) that I read while growing up.
After a few years on a chance visit to Tate Modern, I walked into a room full of Picasso’s collection on a rainy afternoon! To say I was spellbound would be a major understatement, because I had seen these works on the internet and in prints but to see the original works right in front of me was not something I was prepared for. The originals are spectacular and no camera can capture his works. The colours are striking and vivid, the brush strokes are bold and gentle at the same time and the subjects are a fascinating play of the mind in cubism. And I felt an immediate connection to the works because I had been using similar lines and techniques myself and it was thrilling to see these in the masterworks too.
Subconsciously, we are drawn to impactful memories, dreams, and fragments of places and people we have met along the way. My artworks have me in bits and parts and they carry imprints from things that have stayed.
It gives me immense joy and hope to share my works with you and I hope you like them. I would also like to thank my readers and the editorial of Literary Impulse for their love and support for my artworks.
Love,
Lubna
