A Maid in Valley

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In the valley, close to a brook, 

There she resides, her name is peace, 

Laden with flowers, fragrance sweet, 

Youthful and beauteous 

Vale like she looks,

Beside her a lyre, 

Above her a willow,

A melancholic tune 

Hums the meadow,

The moon in the sky, 

A tiny bird roams farther high, 

The mind in peace 

Has divinity nigh.

A thing of beauty, as Keats said, 

Is the source of pleasure 

And peace divine. 

Art is beauty, divine and sublime, 

Ocean-like deep and sky-like wide.  

A large size painting, oil on canvas – measuring 4ft by 6ft, by the known contemporary artist Anup Gomay, it portrays like William Wordsworth’s Lucy, the child of nature, a lone youthful maid – the nature’s spirit manifest, reclining against a mound. A melancholic face with miserable heart the maiden is all beauty, all fragrance, all vigour, all quiescence, and like divine peace she reigns the solitude. Her image is large but on a canvas with far larger size she looks like a small segment of the composition. The moon above and rivulet with silvery waters beside, willow with waving branches and oak cresting peacock-feather like, behind, and ferns, crotons, hedges and beautiful flowering plants around the nature is the painting’s theme, she, the nature’s theme.

Though a bright night with full moon, it is by her radiance, the glow of her face that the rivulet’s waters, lilies and flowers of various kinds and even the clouds laden sky, brighten. A while ago the valley, its solitude, darkness and everything, echoed with the melody that her lyre produced. Now it is lying aside; a deserted and broken heart, wretched and miserable, with all hopes lost, she finds no solace in it. With her right arm lodged over a mound, and left, resting on flowering grass close to the right, she is reclining over a mound. Emptiness descends into her eyes and with her vacant eyes she seems to be exploring a ray in darkness. She knows not where she is looking – far or close, around or away. She has behind her the roses crimson red but so sad is the maid that they turn white when she looks at them.

Anup Gomay is a portraitist of great distinction. He portrays a figure but more often not so much the figure’s anatomy as the figure’s mind, mood and the overall intrinsic being. Thus a modernist, Anup Gomay is not an abstractionist but still believes in exploring the hidden aspects of his subject. His talent is best displayed when he is portraying a female, poised in some emotional situation, delightful or melancholic born of dejection. Sad solitary females, like the one here, is his more favourite theme. Though deeply influenced by Raja Ravi Verma, the founder of the school of modern art in India, unlike him his portraits do not cover the canvas space in entirety. He devotes a large part of it in portraying the ambience in which adequately reflects the painted figure’s mind and mood.

As reveals the figure’s iconography – style of eyes, hair’s colour, angularity of face …, body’s structure – tall height, ensemble to include furs and casually worn other garments besides their shades, colours and class, and the type of lyre, the portrayed figure is hardly Indian. Exceptionally charming she greatly matches the nature around – the willow’s contours, flowers’ freshness, bliss in her beauty and overall composition of which she is a perfect component. The moon, though full and artistically painted looks weak when compared to her. A powerful painting it naturally inspires creativity, and the verse above is its example.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet.

Oil painting technique – India centric

Oil painting is the most interesting technique in art. Unlike other paintings or art forms, oil painting is a process in which colored pigments are painted on the canvas with a drying oil medium as a binder. This medium helps colors blend beautifully to create layers and also makes them appear rich and dense. Several varieties of oil are used in this painting such as sunflower oil, linseed oil, etc., and depending on the quality of the oil, a particular consistency of the paint is developed. With the use of an oil medium, the painting gets a natural sheen on the surface which appears extremely attractive. India is famous for its old tradition of making oil paintings. This art form was brought by Europeans in the 18th century and is now practiced by almost all well-known artists. Nirmal, a small tribal town in the state of Telangana is the center of traditional oil paintings in India where the local people practice it with dedication. Most Indian artists still use the traditional technique of oil painting.

Canvas of the required size is prepared

The artists use either a wood panel or canvas made from linen or cotton. Sometimes the canvas is stretched onto the wooden frame to form a solid base, or cardboard may be used. The canvas is coated with a layer of white paint or chalk mixed with animal glue. This mixture is then smoothed and dried to form a uniform, textured surface. The wooden panel is more expensive and heavier but its solidity is an advantage in making detailed paintings with ease.

Sketch is drawn on the canvas

Now the artist starts to draw the subject of the painting on the canvas using the actual charcoal or a charcoal pencil. Sometimes, he may sketch with thinned paint as well.

Oil paint is applied using paint brushes or palette knives

Now that the rough sketch is prepared, the artist is now ready to paint. Oil paint, a special paint that contains particles of pigments suspended in a drying oil (usually linseed oil), is again mixed with oil to make it thinner for applying it on the canvas. Proper consistency of the paint is maintained to avoid its breakage. The most important rule for the application of oil paint is “Fat over lean” in which the first layer of paint is thin and later, thicker layers are applied. This means that each additional layer of paint contains more oil. This results in getting a stable paint film. Traditionally, paint was applied using paint brushes but now the artists also use palette knives to create crisp strokes. To paint using this technique, the edge of the palette knife is used to create textured strokes that appear different from that of a paintbrush. Sometimes, oil paints are blended simply using fingers for getting the desired gradation.

Smaller oil paintings, with very fine detail, are relatively easier to paint than larger ones. The most attractive feature of these paintings is the natural shiny appearance that is obtained on the surface because of the use of oil paint. The blending of colors looks extremely realistic and this is the reason why oil paintings are loved by everyone throughout the world.