This appeared in today's DNA Bangalore
Street side view
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Mohan Vijayaraghavan, whose exhibition of paintings of Europe’s streets is currently on in the city, talks about his inspirations
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Riya Patel @dnaofblr
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Bangalore: A student of fine arts and a professional creative artist, Mohan Vijayaraghavan breathes and lives art — from portraiture, and still life, to paintings of streets from across the world, he finds inspiration everywhere, and he prefers to work with watercolours. His current exhibition, however, focuses on three of the world’s most popular cities — Venice, Paris, and London.
Is your exhibition at the Hackett store part of a new series? Could you tell us a little more about it? Since this is a group exhibition, I have only about four and five pieces on display at the store. In fact, I have created them only for this particular show. The paintings on display are inspired from the streets of Venice, Paris, and London. You have been painting for nearly 25 years, what continues to inspire you today? I started off learning fine arts and for the last 22 years I have been working in an advertising company, so this keeps me going and inspires me every day to paint. I also draw inspiration from what I see around me. There’s something about the streets of India, or rather streets everywhere, and I most often paint things that I see on these streets. In fact, every time I travel, I make sketches of my surroundings and then come back and translate them into paintings. You say you are influenced by rock and classical music... how integral is music to your process of painting? I believe that we all need music in our lives; it calms us down. And music helps me understand art from different perspectives and gives it life, I can feel it in my bones. I am inspired by rock and classical music but it also depends on what kind of work I am doing at the moment. Some of the portraits I have created of rock musicians are displayed in a pub in Dlangon, Indonesia, and a few in the Bangalore pub, Guzzlers. Do you think that having art works displayed in public spaces such as retail stores is a good way to promote art? Honestly, the place doesn’t make much of a difference to me. My current exhibition is being held in a store that is quite small too, but I am doing it because I love it. Then again, it doesn’t really matter where you display your art. Any place is good, it depends on how well your work goes with the place. It is like playing the right kind of music in the right place. Who are some of your favourite artists? All Italian renaissance artists inspire me, right from Leonardo Da Vinci to Michelangelo. British artist William Turner is another artist who has never seemed to let me down. mybangalore@dnaindia.net |
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Published Date: May 23, 2014
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