I was introduced to Chitra Santhe last year and this year I kept a reminder as soon as I saw the advertisement in paper a month back. This is one Santhe that does not disappoint you as there is something for everyone. Chitra Santhe is the annual painting exhibition held by Chitrakala Parishat at Kumara Krupa road, Bangalore.
Paintings fascinate me more than photographs. I always wonder how does an artist capture an image so well on a sheet of paper! I mean, we take a photo, we see it is blurred and take it again, we feel lighting is not right and we take again. But painting! They manage to get from the expression they want on the face, the lighting effect they want, the rainy effect including the drizzle, the wrinkle on the face, the minuscule carving on the statue, they just get it so perfect! Sometimes I wonder if it is painting or a photograph. Here are some of the pictures that I took in the event. It’s a photo blog and it will take time to load but patience pays.
Streets lined up with paintings,
Can it get any better? The colours, the light consistently falling on one side of face, the on lookers, it looks so real.
The expression speaks it all. The wife learning to ride the cycle and the son’s joy of watching it. Perfect family.
Another detailed painting from Rajasthan.
And from a different state.
Sketches of famous personalities. Particularly that of Illayaraja sir was very captivating.
Sketches of the artist’s favorite muse?
Famous architectural sites from across the state.
Statues from various architecturally rich places.
Should I say anything?
This entire collection had something in it that made me stand and admire. This picture does not do justice. Some were black and white sketches, some were colorful paintings and some of them were cleverly done with black and white background and colorful foreground.
Paintings generally speak the artist’s mind. Some would depict their love for nature, some would depict all characters in unique style, some would have craze over woman, some their likeness for wildlife.
Here are some of their voices,
And then here are something creative,
Should be used in traffic signals right? 🙂
It had a 3D effect. The snake looked absolutely like popping out of the painting.
He had depicted Ramayana with a touch of Chinese painting style.
Imagine putting up this to the wall. It will look absolutely like a new shelf.
Interesting table tops..
That is very much about Chitra Santhe. Somehow the excitement I had this year was little less. There were very few stalls where I stood for more than a minute admiring. There were not many people from outside the state. Most of the paintings were commercialized simple ones, but who is to blame? We do not pay much for art and they need to make a living. Lot of DIY type craft shops were open selling quilled earrings, terracota jewellery, painted kurtas, etc. Looks like quilling is the in thing now. And the new stalls to find were tattoo and nail art. In fact self portrait doing people were less this time and more of tattoo artists were present. This however did not deter our love for the paintings. They were priced from 100 to 50000 or more.
Chitra Santhe happens first Sunday of every January. So if you are in Bangalore please do not miss it. Will remind you the next year for sure. You will need a good half a day time to soak in the paintings. So come early and enjoy the paintings. Until next year,
[…] Also read: Chitra Santhe from 2015 […]
Neatly captured pics with nice words for that.. Next time i will visit ..
Thanks Harshitha.. Do visit next year.. 2016’s event got over in Jan 🙂
Awesome art,….superb work.
Thank you Rajesh 🙂