Artist Kajal Nalwa picks her subjects carefully to radiate hope and energy. Here’s a glimpse into her solo exhibition, Seeing Consciously…

Parbina Rashid

It's the contrast that hits us. And the colours! As the capsule lift navigates through the floors of the tastefully decorated posh Sector 16 house to open at the makeshift art gallery, it takes a minute or two to leave the buzzing cityscape behind and absorb the beauty of the village life on canvas. Green, in all its glory, dominates the room.

Kajal Nalwa, the artist, prefers to call her solo exhibition Seeing Consciously. We do ‘see’ why she adds the word ‘consciously’. Kajal is conscious while choosing her subject, rather subjects — nature, village life and ordinary people. While the ‘seeing’ process is a conscious decision on her part to see what she wants to see, like a countryside or women in bright attire, the execution part is left to the creative entity that dwells in her sub-conscious.

"When I see a scene that holds my attention, I click pictures from the angles I want. Then I study and juxtapose them and from there starts the creative process, which takes its own course on the canvas,” she explains.

And we get a glimpse of that creative persona as she explains the process behind the painting called Black & White Sunset. “I was watching the sunset sitting on a Goa beach, which remained etched on my mind. It was so spectacular that I wanted the sun to be the centre piece of my painting. So, I painted the rest around it in black and white using a charcoal.”

That particular frame stands out with just a pop of colour radiating hope and surrealism. There are a few more in this series which deviate from the her Fields series and Harmony series in terms of the technique she uses — oil or acrylic applied roughly with a brush and a palette knife for a textured feel, a technique that complements her themes. Now, that we know the conscious beginnings and sub-conscious executions of her works, we ask how does a particular painting end — on a conscious note or a sub-conscious note?

“More or less on a conscious note,” the self-taught artists explains the process. “I paint a scene and then I leave it for a day. Then I go back to it. I repeat the process till I am sure that there is nothing much I can add to it. That it's the time to wrap the creative process for that particular painting,” she explains.

Her words are as honest and as passionate as her brush strokes. And in her words and her canvas, we see the form of an artist who was born in Kolkata, brought up in Sri Lanka, educated in Lawrence School, Sanawar, and then Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai; who shifted through different stations with her Army husband to gather experience and wisdom, and now is ready to call Chandigarh home. And what's a better way to announce her ‘arrival’ both in the city and the city's art scene but throw open a solo exhibition showcasing her creations? All 33 of them!

(On till today at House no. 215 Sector 16A)

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