Moonlight Painting

'Draw a story in lines, plot its progress in oils, and bring the conflict to a head with brush strokes.' Kamal is a self-taught artist and a published writer. He was born in India, the land, its spices, its colours and vibrancy of life, all evident in the way Kamal paints, without fear or boundaries; as he says, ‘you can’t paint well until you’ve ruined a few canvases, and I’ve ruined a few.’ He decided very early as an artist that he would mainly paint with oils, as he considered them the most vibrant and challenging of the mediums. If there was something he was going to try to master first, it would be the oils. The paintings usually weave around a story, something deeper inside his soul, something dying to get out, and ‘something that will have a dialog with your mind at the same time your eyes are having one with the layers.’ He considers art to be a very personal journey, an emotive one, where the dialog cannot be infused into the soul of another, but where the observer is moved internally by a physical image, a shift in perspective by the interaction, akin to having the right seasoning in food, before the flavour can think of rising from the bland to the sublime. Inspiration for him comes from just about any source as long as the subject has resonance for him. He gets triggered into a flurry of activity by a newspaper cutting, a magazine article, an observation on the way to work, or simply because ‘I’m awake and with a pulse.’ He is driven, by some inner turmoil or goal, or a childhood memory, or just that at one stage his severe asthma would not let him get out of bed, and now that he is over it, a remembered condition reminds him how good it is to be breathing, to have a heartbeat, a pulse, a life. His art can be found in numerous places in the UK with the occasional works in Europe. There is a permanent display of his works at the Spice Lounge, an Indian restaurant in Oxford where every alcove features one of his paintings, trying to enrich the experiences of the diners with the warmth of colours surrounding them. His future as an artist seems to be only partly in his hands, the rest as he says ‘is a combination of right place, right time and a smidgen of luck, something that we all need.’ Love his art, hate his art, he wouldn’t want you to be indifferent to it. More examples of his work can be found on www.kdlathar.com and www.literarties.com.