The India Art Festival – a veritable artistic cornucopia, overflowing with paintings, sculptures and artefacts across diverse genres and aesthetics – had kept the artist community in the capital busy of late. The event, held between 7-10 April, was a visual explosion of colours, styles and mediums – something the community had been craving but was deprived of for the last two years.
Artist Simple M Pani, who participated in the festival, shares her experience:
Let me introduce myself before I share my experience as a participant in the India Art Festival 2022. I am Simple M Pani, an emerging artist and reasonably well-known in the professional Delhi art circuit for the last 10 odd years. Artists are sometimes so totally absorbed in their art that they are seldom comfortable publicising it. They do it only because they must, to survive. Well then, here I go because I want my art to go out there. Please imagine a smiley here and patiently bear with the following para or two.
I picked up the brush at age 3 under the guidance of artist Shri Prabhat Routray of Odisha who taught me the basics of art for a couple of years. Throughout school and college, not a day passed when I would not paint. Growing academic pressure (I was an academic topper through school and college) separated me from art for a few years- years when I was never, fully myself- I was elated when my first job as a sub-editor at The Statesman, New Delhi reconnected me with my passion. Although placed at the desk, I took extra time out, to report for its art and culture section. One thing led to another and I finally found my mojo, when, back to academics as a lecturer of Political Science in Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, I decided to make a professional foray into art, exhibiting my art at India Habitat Centre, Lalit Kala, IGNCA, Lalit Hotel, CSOI, RPR Gallery and what have you and my work was getting noticed. A few years down the line, I received the Bharat Nirman Make in India Award for excellence in Fine Arts (2018) and a couple of international contests organised by the Light, Space & Time Online Gallery in 2021.
Talking of online art events, they had been a life-saver during the two years of Covid lull. At least it kept the tempo going. Even though sales took a hit, at least artists’ morale did not follow suit, for they could display their art on online platforms. Sometimes, online ventures could be both prestigious and lucrative. For example, the New York-based See me Art Gallery’s collaborative project with Spanish fashion label Mint & Rose called “Art Meets Fashion,” saw seven participants shortlisted worldwide through an online contest held in 2021. I was lucky to be among them, the only Indian among the selected candidates. Subsequently, my acrylic painting, titled “Living in the Moment” won the final voting round and was printed on a limited edition of espadrilles by Mint & Rose, apart from winning a cash award. This brought international acclaim my way.
Apart from the PR, a word about what fuels my passion for art: On asking myself why I need to paint when I see the amaltas flowers swaying in the breeze or a warbler hopping on the grass; or the daintiest butterfly flaunting the most amazing colours, the answer is – love and wonderment at God’s creation, and a need to express this love, beauty and harmony which is every human being’s innate nature. As American psychologist Maslow has rightly said – the highest need and purpose of human existence is self-actualisation. This idea, native to Indic and Oriental cultures is also gaining currency in the West. This is where the arts step in, to join the dots in our individual and collective quests to make sense of the world around us and to harmonize emotion, consciousness and Spirit with the physicality of our humdrum existence.
I have been deeply touched by the beauty, balance, rhythm, resilience and vibrant colours of nature. I try to capture on canvas the very soul, beauty, vitality and life-force of my subjects, which are organically connected to Nature- be they flowers, birds, animals, water bodies, still-life or people in the midst of these. I am greatly inspired by the soulful art of Van-Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Amrita Shergill and in contemporary times Erin Hanson and Ashley Longshore. Starting with realistic watercolours, off late my oeuvre has found flight and joy in expressionism and pop art, with a bright colour palette in acrylic. My works exude “joie de vivre” and scream, “Enough of anthropomorphism. Step out and smell the flowers!” They convey the pantheistic message that if only we observed and enjoyed Nature a little more, the world would be a much better place in every respect!
Coming back to the IAF organised at Constitution Club in New Delhi, the logistical efforts of the organisers were laudable. Over 3,500 artworks were displayed across 85 booths, representing galleries and solo artists from across India. That an event of this scale was happening physically after a hiatus of two years was itself a cause of celebration among the art community. There is no substitute to physically displaying your art. As such, the four days of showing art, meeting and connecting with fellow artists, art entrepreneurs and connoisseurs and designers was hugely rewarding, apart from sales. The positive feedback from visitors who especially appreciated my works, “A Kashmiri Midsummer Day’s Dream” and “Free Skies” has been a huge morale booster and fellow artists have had a similar experience.