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I am interested in the depth of the anatomy. I like to divide structures in planes. As you see, I like unbreakable lines.

STRONG STROKEs One of Amitesh Verma’s works mounted at Gallery Art Home.

A portrayal of emotions through a simplification of form is what Amitesh Verma achieves in his solo art show “Born Blessed”. Gallery Art Home brings more than 40 of his paintings in oil on canvas, charcoal on paper and drawings to the Travancore Palace Art Gallery.

Known for his drawings and sketches of horses, Verma once again displays his skills at creating movement through fine charcoal lines and rapid graphite strokes. His works cover a range of sizes and mediums. His canvases extend from 12”x12” to 72”x48”. While the majority of his paintings and drawings are of horses, the exhibition also includes human figures in the abstraction and in the real.

Verma explains his work, “I am interested in the depth of the anatomy. I like to divide structures in planes. As you see, I like unbreakable lines.”

His interest in anatomy enables him to reduce animal and human forms to the sum of their muscles and tendons. His interest in planes makes him see the geometry of living figures, translating curves into angles. To Verma drawing is the highest form of art. This devotion is evident in his work. Art is labour, for Verma. He says that he has to draw or paint everyday, in order to keep his hand steady and his attention firm.

His drawings are the result of both study and practice. He has observed horses over seven years at railway stations, horse clubs and racecourses, etc. His keen sense of observation has enabled him to pare down horses to their essentials and not merely to the minimum. “Abstraction is the easiest word to use,” he says, elaborating, “But I don’t like that word. It’s more simplification of form, for me.”

But in some of his works, Verma also combines the metaphysical with the actual. In “Born Blessed”, for example, he uses Hindu mythology to make the horse epic. In Hindu mythology, horses are not only the avatar of the sun god Surya, but also representative of the moon and lightning. So, while in some works the horse figure is simplified, in other works, the horse is extrapolated into a mystical, nearly magical, creature.

Verma, a student from the College of Art, is soon heading to Europe with the hope of sketching live models there.

The exhibition runs till this Friday.

NANDINI NAIR

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