She took the Nepali artscape by surprise when her series, “Symphony Of Forms And Fragments”, hit the Hindu-majority nation with a spank of gritty resilience. The sylvan abode of the hallowed Pashupatinath Temple woke up to a revolutionised expression of artistic impressions, tinctured with a palette of path-breaking chromes and concepts. Bengal-born painter Aditi Chakraborty Sadhu is but a self-taught artist. “Earlier, the gifted Nepalese artists would keep their skilled hands busy in delineating the scenic cityscapes of Kathmandu, besides depicting the traditional architecture, the temple engravings, the lofty Himalayan range, to cater to the commercial dynamics of an art mart. It’s true that selling a product is vital to any given sphere of activity. But creativity knows no bounds,” says the artist. Sadhu’s gutsy specimens reflected her boldness to defy the stereotypes and try her hand at something novel and fresh. From the fiscal point of view, her style promised no guarantee of big moolah in the market, but it certainly consolidated her resolve to present her platter with panache.
A matrix of geometric shapes, linear designs, symmetrical motifs, a human face, a bird, beauteous aspects of nature, asymmetrical fluid forms, one merging into another with a blend of diverse textures — replenished her canvas dipped into a rich rainbow of colours. These salient features of Sadhu’s repertoire had shed some unique streaks in the Nepalese art milieu and her ceaseless shows since early 2000 were highly appraised by the art patrons. “Right at the nascent stage of my painting pursuits, I would grope for what to draw and what not to. Whatever struck my mind and spouted out in a spontaneous jet actually became the instant manifestation of my artistic explorations. You would always find a speck of nature’s freedom with a hut of human habitation hidden under its protective bowers. It’s like a cocooned square in between. I always repose my firm conviction in the peaceful co-existence of the flora and fauna of this world and translate the same with earthy tones on paper as well as the canvas. Both humanity and natural elements are integral to maintain an ecological balance on the terra firma,” she says.
Currently settled in south Kolkata, Sadhu was born and brought up in the steel town of West Bengal’s Durgapur. After wrapping up her studies with a master degree in English Literature from Burdwan College, she tied the nuptial knot which prompted her to shift base to Nepal, courtesy her husband’s transferable job. Recently, she showcased her first solo show at s Gallery 79 in Kolkata. Having pitched in a few group shows before going solo, Sadhu felt that those flitting exposures within a team have actually enabled her to gauge all aficionados’ response, tastes and the crucial demands of market economics.
Traipsing from Nepal, Indonesia, South Korea to India (Delhi, Kolkata), Sadhu now sets her sights on a group splurge in Bangladesh, come this July. “It will be a conglomerate of bright young artists at the venue. A bunch of eight to 10 painters from India is being selected to participate at the show,” she says. Armed with a one-year application course in paintings from Nepal, Sadhu dabbles in charcoal sketches on paper, besides dabbing water hues, oil paints and acrylic shades on the canvas. “I’m a true nature lover like Tagore. He’s my foremost idol. The bard’s nature odes are celebrated worldwide. The poet-philosopher was an ardent worshipper of nature and its precious gifts to this planet. His Gitabitan comprises a complete series dedicated to nature, thereby encompassing six seasons prefixed with six different themes,” she says. A gold medallist in interior designing, the price band of her 20 paintings was pegged between Rs 5,000 to Rs 52,000, while the dimension varied from 12X14 inches to 54X24 inches.
Dappling the calendar of seasons with specific shades, Sadhu defines the mood of every mausam that she paints with her subtle imagination. A touch of finesse here and a tint of pigment there makes her palette vivid and eye-grabbing. “I pour in volumes of greys and blues to make a splash of the rainy monsoon. While the summer sizzles with a hot orange sun and ample yellows, signifying the searing Indian heat. Spring spreads out a plethora of dyes, with yellow embodying the warmth of the earth, its soil and natural resources. The blue sky, lush green growth of vegetation, fluffy white clouds, red blossoms, however, fill in the rest. Finally, the parched winter heralds dryness, shedding, death and vacancy with its rays of browns and blues,” she explains. Primarily, the colours are drawn from nature again.
Being a socially-conscious artist, the surrounding upheavals do hammer Sadhu’s creative conscience, as she corroborates. “Any violent incident or destructive elements that disrupt a stable state of affairs is bound to have its effect all over. Peace is imperative. Maltreatment and exploitation of children rips my heart apart. Child abuse and labour are still palpable in contemporary society, specially in the developing countries. They leave an indelible blemish on the face of the modern-day world. I did a charcoal pencil sketches on paper series on the tainted curse of child labour. Being a mother of two, I can relate to the angst of seeing an infant working on the streets as a daily wage earner,” she says.