An explosion of seasons and colours

As you walk through the gallery doors, your senses are overwhelmed by an explosion of colours that remind you of a very pretty autumn season from your dreams.A series of 27 paintings adorn the walls that, as Chandana Khan, the state principal secretary for education, puts it is 'a depiction of the world we live in, of seasons melting into one another that is symbolic of life --- peace within turmoil and colour within colourlessness'.  The exhibition titled 'Beauty in eternity' is an exploration of genesis that focuses largely on nature and seasons. The splash of colours across the canvas are reminiscent of mostly of the autumn season.What makes this collection all the more interesting is her choice of technique --- splashed colours on the canvas rather than clean geometric strokes. Smiling she says, “I guess the technique is an expression of the fury within me. There's a sense of restlessness that I've tried to bring out through the art." The restlessness is what inspires the orange hues, the dominating shade amongst the paintings. Besides the use of these bright and contrasting colours like orange with yellow and sea-greenish blue and teal, Khan renders a three dimensional effect on to her canvas to create flowers and stems. Blobs of acrylic paint also dot her creations that look like dandelions in one and forest groves in another. "I've done that using different mediums on the canvas because nature doesn't exist in one texture. You have dried leaves yet at the same time brilliant soft green leaves.”Added to the 27 paintings are 38 photographs that complete her collection. Taken on her travels, the photographs are from Geneva, Switzerland, Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh and Shillong in Meghalaya. “When I was making the collection for the exhibition I realised I had these photographs that fit perfectly with the theme. These were just taken at that point of time, out of notion to capture the moment. One can barely call me a professional photographer.”'Beauty in eternity' juxtaposes paintings with photographs that hope to convey what Khan feels when she looks at nature, bringing about a correlation between different mediums and textures.The exhibition is on display at the Chitramayee State gallery of fine arts in Madhapur till January 22.