“Happiness springs from art” and artist Bhavana Sonawane’s paintings could be appreciated best with this thought in mind. Her works resonate with positivity and energy like that of a statue of Buddha. This Mumbaikkar, a mother of two, finds solace in her artist life. Brought up in a city, which is an amalgam of various cultures, Bhavana is inspired by the life of the common people. Since she prefers to lend a happy mood to her simple canvases, she expresses mostly through acrylic and metal leaves. Her childhood adventures, especially weekend voyages on scooter with family too find a place in her works. She loves experimenting with various mediums such as ceramic, brass and glass. On display at ‘The world according to Bhavana’ is two series of paintings — mountains and urban dwellings. Her works are layered with textures and patterns of paint rendered with knife, hand and brush. Her frequent visits to museums, parks, caves and other places of scenic beauty influenced her artistic journey. Her lines throb with a unique movement that lend a rhythm to her abstracts.
“I want the colours in my canvasses to bring cheer in people’s lives. I sell only what I would love to buy,” says the artist, who makes use of the Modi script (a 17th century script) to lend fluidity to her lines.
Her paintings are a melange of urban elements such as grilled houses, cable wires, metal rods, flies and concrete jungles. And amidst all these are trees, occupying a prominent place, as if to convey modern life’s irony — green’s fight with the grey. A single tree against a bright saffron background, leaves splashed with metallic hues and roots resembling the symbol of a musical note disseminating from the trunk is the highlight of the show that is on at Apparao Galleries (till April 28).
