Art with a heart

A powerful and live visual exhibition by artists and classmates Sreekanth Nettoor and Satheesh Pai is being showcased and is up for sale at the Kerala Art Gallery, Nettipadam Road from November 1 to 13.Inaugurated by cartoonist Yesudasan and presided by MLA, Hibi Eden, the exhibition presents nine paintings by Sreekanth Nettoor priced between  Rs 8000 and Rs 16,000, and twelve works by Sateesh Pai priced Rs 8000 - Rs 12,000 “The need for change is inherent in every artist. Even if it were my last painting, I would approach it with a fresh and different vision,” says artist Sreekanth Nettoor who is also the manager of Kochin Kalavathy. He has created his paintings using techniques such as applying glass colour on acrylic sheet, wood cutting, and acrylic colour on paper. All his paintings offer certain insight, as well as depict his closeness to nature. The painting, ‘Wanderer’ which is done in glass paint is one that is closest to his heart.The inspiration for it came from William Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils.' It depicts the hallucinations of a person lying asleep on a wheel who visualises a lake and lotuses in the sky accompanied by clouds and fairies. Another one of his striking painting is ‘Untitled’, portraying the abstractness of modern art on a little canvas.He prefers to allow the audience to decipher its meaning. It’s an eye-catching collage of psychedelic glass colours on an acrylic sheet, that the painter says he created during a period of barrenness.Also highly noticeable is a painting titled ‘Solitary’ which delves into the artist’s memory of an orphaned girl on the bank of a river in his hometown.In contrast to Sreekanth Nettoor’s use of dramatic and bright colours, his classmate and close associate of seven years, Satheesh Pai has chosen the medium of sublime water-colours for all his twelve paintings.In his striking depiction of a modern day ‘rickshaw-wala’ we see our society negatively influenced by modernity and the blind aping of the West.It is an absurd portrait where the rickshaw puller with his face turned towards the audience is shown in a western corporate garb complete with tie and shoes.Another profound picture is that of a hen and a cock in a wooden cage awaiting their turn at the butcher’s stone. In Pai’s hometown, hens were reared lovingly but now the only purpose served by them is to provide succulent meat.Their short life-span of barely 45 days is bemoaned in the painting.Also depicted in one of his works is the pitiable cruelty shown towards elephants where they're running amok in chains. The painter feels that it would be better to put them to sleep forever rather than subjecting them to such treatment. All the paintings are on small canvasses, suitable to exhibit at modest, appropriate galleries. The aim is to try and bring about a change in man’s callous attitude to nature and animals. As Vincent Van Gogh quotes “I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful.I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.”