Artist Priyendra Shukla’s paintings talk about unending human desires, momentary joy and sadness
Capturing a child’s expressions in a toy shop can be an amusing experience. The kid tries to touch and feel them all, shouts in excitement if something is exactly similar to what he has and feels annoyed to see some toys that his friend owns. If he gets lucky to convince parents and get desired toys, the child is the happiest but that happiness is momentary, and only lasts till he reaches home. Whenever he visits the toy shop again, there are new demands. “As the child grows up, his demands and preferences change, but the nature remains the same. As soon as we obtain one thing, there is a desire for the other. This world is like a toy shop, full of materialistic things, that are sometimes easy, mostly difficult to attain. We spend our lives running after them,” shared Priyendra Shukla, who has painted his latest series, keeping in mind the unending desire to have more and more. The works will be displayed at Shridharini Art Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam from March 29. The exhibition will be titled the Toy Shop.
“Toys are among a person’s earliest memories of fun and as objects, they embody our fantasies, values, obsessions and fears. My works capture this sentiment and will have you reminiscing about your childhood and the simple desires we have as children,” said Priyendra and added that he was inspired by his four-year-old daughter and her excitement at the toy store. “When I look at her childish cravings for a new toy and think in amusement how she can be so fascinated by something so useless, I wonder aren’t our lives a never-ending process of wanting this or thatIJ Either we quickly come to terms with our gain or sulk when we do not get our toy. My paintings reflect this similarity between our lives and a kid’s. We desire to satisfy our own selves and to flaunt and a kid desires only to have something that’s a source of amusement,” added the artist.
Animals, like donkeys and horses, dominate most of his works. But putting them in the predictable form is not the style of the artist. He plays with the form and creates the patches of colours, that seem to be merging in the background, around the form to give it a semi-abstract look. “Portraits or figurative works are highly predictable. Semi-abstract forms maintain the mystery in the painting. There are elements of humour, satire and the colours used in the paintings reflect these emotions and convey the dreams and the desires that are a part of our lives,” said Priyendra.
He has paid a great attention to the patterns that he has created on the canvas. He says that the beauty of artwork is reflected through the techniques used on the canvas. “I believe that your technique should be perfect. Anything that you come up with on the canvas should be appealing. It is not important that a painting comes with a message, but it is definitely necessary that it is done so perfectly that it holds the attention of the onlooker and he is forced to come up with his own interpretation,” said the artist, who is mostly inspired by people and small things he observes around. “My father and brother have been artists and I have been painting since my childhood. So I am inspired by even the minute things around me and converting that into a painting is rather easy. If there are thoughts that I cannot express in words, I try to put them on the canvas,” he said. The exhibition will continue till April 8.