Artist Yogendra Sethi's fascination with diamonds not only makes his canvas glitter but also retain its purity. By Shrabasti Mallik
The art of colours and canvas runs in his blood. Yogendra Sethi’s tryst with a paintbrush began with him painting the rustic countryside of India and his keenness towards adding a shade of contemporary West to his occidentals that has made him one of the best contemporary painters today. Inaugurating his latest exhibition titled Diamond Soul, he says, “It is a presentation of clean soul on canvas in impressionist contemporary style of art.” Nature is presented in his canvases with an imagination so vivid and fertile that the viewer is immediately caught in his world where the strength and the brilliance of diamonds are visible. He adds, “Every acrylic on canvas ostensibly reflects my personal love of nature and a deep sense of spirituality.”
The 40 odd paintings on display at Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre took him almost two years to finish. The collection brings out his core philosophy and spirituality to the surface as each of his paintings depicts his mastery over his skills — that of positive feeling, philosopher and an artist. “I was inspired by my gurus and I also accumulated a lot through learning scriptures, which talks about a clean soul,” he says. In case you are wondering what he understands by a ‘clean soul’ he explains, “You can look at it from any angle you want. Every person is a diamond of his own profession. But the brilliancy of it is always limited. Only a pure soul, with no shade of grey, can comprise the light of the universe. It is very much the same way that an uncut pure diamond, with no chips and cut, radiate the colours of the universe.”
The colours of nature transformed into his eyes giving him a vision to understand and enjoy the beauty of colours in gemstones. “No colour is good or bad, liked or disliked. life is a rainbow, the more colour you infuse the more you enjoy it. What is imperative is how every subsequent effort transcends the other,” he says. Being a pioneer in fancy diamonds for the past 25 years, he feels that every tiny detail related to the precious stone is instilled in him. He now compares the brilliance of the diamond with the soul, which is born pure but is tarnished in various ways in the process of growing up. “That is the basic thought. The soul is as brilliant as the diamond,” he describes. And it is not surprising to notice the diamond influence in the canvas. One close look into the canvas painted in bold colours and one would find the diamond like shapes which define his art. Nature that he loves to paint, has always taken a form of life in his paintings. The strokes the lines, the colours are that of mountains, rocks and nature, but as the same time resemble human figures or a group of people — all dynamic and active. Brilliant as a diamond, these pragmatic forms speak to us, “make us wonder and give us energy, joy and possibility,” he puts it. His paintings on display speak volumes of his expertise with ‘natural fancy colour diamonds’ which has allowed him to master unusual prismatic forms.