On a joyride

With dull shades of the color black and some highlights of red,through his paintings artist Dilip Chowdhury captures various aspects,which are symbolic of the city Kolkata,on the canvas. Kolkata-based Chowdhury’s works are on display at Ray Art Gallery,Shivajinagar. Having organized various solo art exhibitions all over the country and attending numerous art camps in places like Netherlands,Germany and London,this is the first time when Chowdhury has come up with his painting exhibition in Pune.

“Since Pune is known to be a city of art and culture,I have received a very good response from people who visited the exhibition,” says Chowdhury,who prefers to paint on the lives of the lower sections of the society. In his current exhibition also,one can find images of rickshaw-pullers,which speak a lot about their daily lives. For instance,in one of the paintings,a rickshaw,in a bad condition is shown that depicts the deteriorating life of the rickshaw-puller. He further says,“Usually these people take up the job at a very young age. As the years pass by,their health also weakens. I have tried to mix the life of the rickshaw as well as its puller in my paintings,” Chowdhury spoke to a number of rickshaw-pullers for this theme-based painting exhibition.

On his choice of colours – black and red – he elaborates,“Black is a very sad colour and so is the life of the poor in our country. No other colour can do justice and bring the real picture on the canvas. There are some areas which needs to be highlighted,also the colour red brings vibrations to the painting.”

Having done paintings on heritage buildings of Kolkata. Chowdhury feels that the buildings there have a typical design which you will not find anywhere in the country. The painting exhibition was inaugurated at the hands of Capt Deepak Shastri,Airport Director,Pune Airport on January 3 and will be on display till January 12.