A comment on society

CHANDIGARH, May 3: Both painting and murals are in harmony with each other. If you are not a good painter, you cannot be a good muralist too,8221; Surendra Pal Joshi told Newsline during an earlier chat. And seeing his paintings that went up on the gallery wall of Art Folio this evening, one could get the full import of Joshi8217;s statement.

Joshi began his workshop too at the centre today, and has a lively bunch of students from Yadavindra Public School and Carmel Convent along with professionals and housewives trying to get to the base of his mural technique. But browse through the paintings, you get a strange correlation with his murals. Agreeing, he said, 8220;Of course murals do peep into my paintings.8221; Hence we see the motifs and format in bright shades making strong statements on the society, be it Ahalyas surviving the rigid rules and norms of society or the Roop Kanwars caught in a dice played by masked faces.

Joshi said, 8220;I still go into the interiors for studying the murals that women make on the walls. For I get inspiration and idea from them.8221; That we could see in the strong influence of rural motifs in those rare shaped men and women who were caught up in the hub of life. But even amidst them, Joshi has crafted an unusually serene piece through deft handling of colours with green as the backdrop. Aptly titled Morning Prayer8217;.