Flow of positive energy

The array of colours is stunning, the images, mostly abstract, soothing, almost mystic, and the spirituality acutely present. 

The painter, Anupama Trigunayat, partly explains: “It is my being Indian. We are very colourful people. From very early I was drawn to bright colours. I am inspired by the festival of colour, holi.”

Partly, because that comes in addition to the incontestable talent, exhibited in every stroke of brush, colour combination and images, titled in their majority, making it easier for the viewer to understand and relate, and, perhaps, grasp the state of mind of the ebullient painter.

For, her paintings are “more of a spiritual connection with the world”, at times facilitated by an all-seeing eye open large to the universe, but also tempting the viewer to use it as a medium to enter another dimension, to attempt an “introspection”, ideally into the inner self, but also into spirituality and a higher order.

With no formal training in painting, the artist, “a trained classical kathak dancer and author of books in the field of education”, to which she dedicated many years of her life, has passion and an innate talent that speak in every work.

“I follow my instinct. All my work is my own imagination, feelings, perception of abstraction. I just translate them onto canvas. It is a very spiritual connection, besides being my passion.”

A passion that does not fail to touch the viewer and whose outcome, happiness, gratefulness, hope, healing, perfect balance, timelessness, cosmic energy, celebration — most titles of her works — is inevitably transmitted to the viewer in an uplifting exchange.

Such flow of positive energy is no doubt facilitated by the artist’s search “beyond what is tangible”. Her exploration does not always have to go very far, for anything could inspire her, “even a fabric, a shade while I am driving”.

That, and the fact that there are “no barriers in my experimentation”, that painting “transports me into a different universe; just like when you are reading a book, you are engrossed, transported”, could explain the works and their attraction, the connection that is immediately created between the paintings and the viewer.

The colours, too many to name, bold and vibrant, create mono or polychromatic canvases; they combine in patterns of exquisite detail, regular, contained, geometric or flowing freely.

Circles, ellipses, serpentines project happiness, celebration, explosive powers and “natural forces”.

Lines create stylised human silhouettes, whirlwinds, cosmic energy, and the eyes that gaze at the viewer expressing a mixture of emotions — hope, fear, expectation — and inviting to introspection, but also project “the inner energies of Ganesha” [the elephant head deity known for many attributes, but widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deity of intellect and wisdom], in “The protector” or explosions of colours that one associates with fireworks or tropical flowers, in “Happiness”.

“Perfect balance”, human figures on one side, separated by a thick cord of white paint from a bright maroon brown panel of paint, an interesting juxtaposition, is better explained by the artist.

“We all have an aura around us. White is for purity and peace, orange and gold our spiritual connection and happiness, black, the dark side of us, red mixed with black [is] energy and passion — the balance in us.”

Trigunayat’s “gateway” could lead one to a spiritual world, her whorl of dark colour, almost a woman figure, could disappear” into the unknown”, her “timeless” spirals indeed create an eternal cycle of life and her geometric patterns could be “simply sublime”.

She guides the viewer into her world by suggesting titles, but he is “free to interpret however”. And that one cannot avoid doing, for the canvases, oil or acrylic, are filled with colourful imagery that stimulates imagination and stirs the senses.

Wife of the Indian ambassador to Jordan  — who, with their daughter, are “my two pillars and critics” — Trigunayat’s works on display at Ras Al Ain Gallery, were painted in Jordan.

Titled “Celebration of Colours”, they are on display until May 30.