Balan Thanur

Paintings and Linocut prints of Shalini Patel

Shalini Patel, an artist from Vadodara; cordially invites you to her exhibition of paintings and linocuts; from 17th March to 20th March 2016 at the White Sanctum Art Gallery, Bengaluru. The exhibition will be inaugurated by the renowned artist Shri. T M Aziz. Shalini has an M.A. in (Fine arts- Painting) from M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara. She conducted many solos and group shows in India and abroad. She is a student of Padmavibhooshan K G Subramaniyan. She has done her junior cultural scholarship under the guidance of renowned artist Late Shri. Bhupen Khakkar for 3 years. 

Pic: Artist Shalini Patel

Shalini Patel comes up with a body of her latest works: paintings and lino-prints in which she mirrors the nature around her where she is rooted. She has brought 20 Lino- prints and 20 paintings for this exhibition of her works. As Antony Joseph Nangelimalil puts it "Her works give a call from behind to turn back to nature, to which each one really belongs. Her works give an invite to immerse in the warmth of nature, to which once each one has to submerse. Her works give a sober counsel to be in harmony with the nature.".

Pic: Shalini Patel's Banana leaf series and other paintings in display

Pic: Shalini Patel's Lino cut prints in display at White Sanctum Art Gallery

Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for therelief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller (called a brayer), and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with a press. The stark contrast of Linocuts attracted the artist to it’s beauty. With the advance of technology Linocut usages have diminished. 

- Bindu P V

Lino Cut

ABOUT LINOCUTS

Linocut is a graphic technique where the sharp instruments are used to cut into the lino surface. With printing ink and rollers the surface is covered. Paper is then placed on the Lino and run through the printing press. The results are limited edition prints and the print number can be figured out from the bottom of the print [for eg: 1/3 would mean the first print of the 3 prints taken for that design].

Pic: Artist Shalini Patel's Lino cut prints in display at White Sanctum Art gallery

As Wikipedia puts it :"It is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, Vshaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller (called a brayer), and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with a press. ". With the advance of technology Linocut usages have diminished. 

VCHITRAA - Iam you

What is VCHITRAA?
A series of creative efforts, including exhibitions related to social issues like gender issues, ecological issues etc. The selection of name comes as a often scorned attitude against a woman who tries to speak out against issues etc. with statements that can be literally translated like "you are a strange animal" etc. Vchitram/ Vchitraa means strange one. We believe the power of knowledge and broader thinking will remove the darkness caste by social evils. No change happens in a day or maybe even years. But it will never happen if we don't even try.

Where will it be conducted?
Any place, where we get the availability of space and we can manage the expenditure :)
We prefer this more on the rural and tribal areas, as they hardly get opportunities for educated thought process or get chance to view art forms etc.

Who finances?
Self financed, as of now. We wish this endeavour to be devoid of any political or religious colouring; as this is focused at sheer equalizing of genders through science, technology and art.

A few news articles of the exhibition:

For purchasing the digital art works, writings available under VCHITRAA series: The sole dealer of the works is White Sanctum Art Gallery.

It's been a year ...

White Sanctum art gallery was built with a realitistic though of being available to artists and artlovers alike; with availability economical and copyrighted artworks for the artlover round the year; with a easy and economical rental etc. 124 artists had exhibited their works in the gallery, as part of the group shows conducted in White Sanctum art gallery in the year 2015. The works of most of these artists are available for sale also through the gallery website www.whitesanctum.com   Workshops and art classes too are conducted here. Some of these workshops conducted for the propagation of some rare art forms like Mandana etc. are conducted free for children and elders.

In year 2016 gallery plans to conduct shows focused on social themes; as the curator Bindu P V feels that social themes and aesthetics can go hand in hand. As part of this thought process, a show titled "VCHITRAA - Iam you" will be conducted in various rural/tribal areas during the first half of the year. The show starts from 20th January 2016 from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state. White Sanctum Art Gallery and Bindu P V wish the first anniversary of the gallery to be held, along with the people in far away villages and tribal areas where art in form of an exhibition, hardly reaches. We thank God, and all our well wishers who helped us sail through our formative phase and the first year of our existence.

-Bindu P V
whitesanctum@gmail.com
www.whitesanctum.com
08065687209

Photo Album Memoir 2015

An album of the shows conducted in 2015 in White Sanctum Art Gallery

White Sanctum Art Gallery Wishes all a very happy New Year. The gallery walls adorned works of 124+ upcoming artists in the year 2015 during various exhibitions. Workshops and classes too were conducted in the gallery. Here's a photo album of the year that was for the gallery. These works are available in our website too. Any sales enquiry can be directed to whitesanctum@gmail.com or 08065687209. The gallery is open throughout the year for public viewing. Booking for Gallery rentals can be done through email to whitesanctum@gmail.com.

Pic: Inauguration of the Gallery Premises

Pic: Inauguration of the Gallery 

Pic: Artist Varghese Kalathil's paintings

Pic: Curator and artist Bindu P V's paintings 

Pic: MLA Aravind Limbavali during the inauguration of the exhibition Colors of India-2

Pic: Cartoonist Sridhar Comaravalli and Musician Venkatalakshmi Sridhar

Pic: During "Colors of India-2"

Pic: Veteran Kannada Artist M B Patil inaugurating exhibition

Pic: During inaugurations

Pic: Artists Umesh CJ, Lingaraju, M B Patil, Nirupam Komwar, Kanthraj and Madhu Kumar

Pic: Paintings of Atul Padia, Bindu P V and Earthwork imprint painting of Sunitha Ramachandran.

Pic: During inaugurations

Pic: During inaugurations

Pic: From one of the water color workshops

Pic: From Cement Relief Sculpture workshop

Pic: From one of the Mandana workshops

Pic: From one of the water color workshop

Pic: Some of the student works from painting classes held at the gallery

Mysore Paintings

When one hears the phrase “South Indian Traditional paintings” possibly the first style of paintings that come into our mind is Tanjhavur/ Tanjore paintings with heavy gold decorations etc. There is a sister art to this art form, which in my eyes are much subtler and finer – the mysore paintings. Both these art forms are derivatives of other traditional art forms.

[Pic: A modern Tanjore painting with Thai figure. Artist: Bindu P V]

The Mysore kings were ruling the princely state from Srirangapattana and Raja Wodeyar (1578-1617 A.D.) employed several painters from Vijayanagar and thus laid a sound foundation of Mysore Traditional Painting. These painters were also assigned allied work in decoration, preparing banners, doll making, gold work, painting the temple cars, preparing portraits of rulers, deities and saints. The Mysore kings that followed also encouraged this style of painting.

[Pic: Durbar in Mysore Palace. Image from: http://www.mysorepalace.gov.in/]

[Pic: A portion of a Mysore painting composition of Girija Kalyanam. Artist: Bindu P V]

These artists used locally available material for their paintings. The hair of the squirrel were used as brushes by tying them with a silken tread and inserting them in the narrower end of a quill. The board for painting were obtained by pasting a cloth or waste paste to wooden planks. Controlled- burnt tamarind sticks were used as sketching charcoal. The sky and river were painted followed by animal and human figures. The gold (gesso) foils are pasted last. In southern India, two types of gesso art are found predominantly, namely the Tanjore gesso works and the Mysore gesso works, . This comparison chart of the two traditional schools of classical Indian painting are provided to so you can appreciate the difference between their history and styles.

[Pic: Part of paintings of Shri Rama and Maha Vishnu from Tanjore and Mysore paintings respectively]

Comparing Tanjore (a.k.a. Tanjavur) and Mysore style of gesso paintings

In my observation, semi precious stones, Kudan stones etc were not added to the mysore paintings like that in Tanjore paintings















[Ref: http://www.kamat.com]