VASANT RITU-5 (vk-173), 5 mar to 3rd may (in Ritu-Sanhaar by Kaalidaas) Painting

Vijay started painting late in life. To hasten his learning he is pursuing art vigorously, with the same passion as he put into his 40-year corporate career, after graduating from IIT Kharagpur. Vijay loves doing watercolors. This medium poses challenges like no other. The spontaneity, the uncertainty, the vividness and life-like emotions, harmonize well with his optimism, creativity, and quickness of decision-making. The elements of nature emerge as human mind or human bodies in some of his paintings. He predominantly adopts the wet-in-wet watercolor technique, where the "unexpected" happens. Meditation Series: The meditation series portrays agitation of mind at one end (before) and tranquility at another (after). The paintings having elements of nature such as buds, flowers, leaves, twigs, fruits, trunks, create this transition in interesting and abstract manner. The transition is from bottom to top or sideways, or diagonally. My Dream Garden Series: In this series monuments mingle with gardens in colorful and abstract manner, creating beautiful mystery. Ritu-Sanhaar Series: Some 1500 years ago, the great ancient poet Kaalidaas wrote a lyrical poem named Ritu-Sanhaar in Sanskrit language. Ritu-Sanhaar means description of seasons. Kaalidaas divided the year in six seasons. Season means Ritu. The six seasons are Greeshm Ritu (4th May-30th June), Varsha Ritu (1st July-12th Sept.), Sharad Ritu (13th Sept.-26th Oct.), Hemant Ritu (27th Oct.-24th Dec.), Shishir Ritu (25th Dec.-4th Mar.), and Vasant Ritu (5th Mar.-3rd May). Over the years the artist has recorded his observations of nature including flowers, trees, birds, festivals and cultural activities in India. This painting series in different formats portrays some features of the seasons as described by Kaalidaas and some as observed by the artist. Jainism Series: in this series, Vijay portrays Jain philosophies in abstract manner. One concept is that of Parigrah which means possessions or endless desires or tendency to acquire more and more. Aparigrah is opposite of it, meaning tendency to renounce. Vijay is indebted to Delhi based artists Manish Pushkale, Surinder Kaur and Rajesh Kumar Sharma; Pune based Watercolorist Milind Mulick and Berkeley (California) based Watercolorist Julie Cohn, for their teachings and guidance from time to time.