Using elements from nature as mood identifiers on canvas

EARTH STORY – The Elements, a solo exhibition by textile designer-turned artist Bharti Prajapati, concluded at Visual Arts Gallery, Indian Habitat Centre on Thursday.Talking about the show, the Ahmedabad-based artist said, “The theme revolves around all five elements of nature – earth, fire, air, water, and ether (space) which are closely connected to us. And it’s called the Earth Story because we all have our own little stories and memories linked to them. My work is about how women connect with these elements in different moods because we cannot detach ourselves from whatever is happening in the nature.”

Prajapati’s 30 oil-on-canvas paintings and 12 drawings were on display at Earth Story. Roles of the women and their bonding with the surroundings, has been her constant source of inspiration and vocabulary.
“My muse has always been the rural woman, and all my series are women centric. I have studied textile design from the National Institute of Design and we worked in villages throughout India for a very long period, which left an influence on my heart and mind. When I started painting 25 years back, it was more about portraying design into my art.

I have worked as a textile designer for 10 years, but I wasn’t keen on going into the commercial part of it. I wanted to do something with an emotional connect,” said Prajapati, who has done 18 solo shows and many groups shows at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Singapore, New York, and London.   Since Prajapati is both an artist and a craftsperson who uses both sensibilities in her creations, the canvas portrays repetitive use of a mono tone overall that gives the image a rhythmic patterning. She has mainly used blue, red, orange, black and white for the paintings.

About using these shades, she said, “The paintings in red and orange signify fire, blue is for water, black is for space and white shows air. I have used these colours because every frame shows a time and phase in a woman’s life. I have magnified every aspect of these natural elements, and through them, I have tried to show moments that we will never outgrow such as seeing the sunset, standing under the stars or feeling the rain.”