Date:16/12/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fr/2005/12/16/stories/2005121601870300.htm

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Late begun, well done!

A painting by Vijaya Goel

Be it colours in a palette or precious stones in any form, Vijaya Goel is equally at ease with the two. Not only an accomplished gemmologist and numerologist but also a painter with more than eight solo exhibitions to her credit she recently displayed 32 of her oil on canvas works at the India International Centre. Among the paintings that encompassed many themes the majority were her depictions of the beauty of the female form and the ubiquitous Lord Ganesha in his regal splendour.

Having spent over a decade at the easel putting together the current collection, Goel speaks of her fascination with the female form, as it's the strength and courage of women that inspires her on canvas, and her love for reading biographies of women as one of her sacred pleasures.

"Women like Gayatri Devi have continually inspired others and are not just beauty but also strength personified and it's always intriguing to portray this complexity through colours," she says. This love is easily recognisable, as the beauty of Indian women, mostly from the villages takes up a position of pride among her works. Painting faces and forms that are classically Indian, the scenes range from courtesans in the 1800s to radiant village women dancing with Krishna in all His glory. And it's not just the brush that she likes to experiment with, for many paintings among those on display were completed without brushes by using fingers and controlled splashes of oil paint. "There is much more freedom to experiment without the brush," she says hinting at her love for living life unshackled by any rules.

So how did this lady who never picked up a brush till she was married take to painting?

"The easel lets me get away from the `ugliness' of the world around me to where I can feel nature and its beauty," she concedes. Yet with an association with the brush that is more than two decades old she doesn't consider herself an artist.

"Artists give their life to the canvas, and I haven't done that. I started painting only when I was cooped up inside with young children to take care of. "