On a spiritual path

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She is an artist who is curious about spirituality. As a result, Surekha Sadana decided to do an exhibition of paintings, ‘Spiritual Elevation’, that according to her, has the power to invoke a positive emotion and affect the senses.

As a kid, Surekha wanted to know about religion and prayers. However, as she grew up, she got more interested in spirituality. Surekha was inquisitive about how the kundalini becomes jagruk and how chakras function. She started reading about it and wanted to translate her knowledge about spirituality on a canvas. So, the 30 paintings that will be displayed at the Lalit Kala Akademi in the capital are a result of Surekha’s research on topics including purushand prakriti, tantra, yantra and the significance of colours.
“I have experienced a beautiful journey while searching for my spiritual self. The paintings are an attempt to showcase that journey,” says Surekha, who also practices different techniques of meditation. She has read books on spirituality and art by many authors including tantra scholar Madhu Khanna and Anil Mukherjee. “You can’t fiddle with something as serious as spirituality, as there’s a set pattern for everything. Of course there’s artistic liberation, but they have to be within the guidelines,” she adds.
And thus, most of her work follows a set colour code and the depiction of the spiritual techniques. Since, purple is the colour of spirituality, it has been used in a number of her paintings. “A colour has a great impact on a person’s mind. And thus, most of the paintings have been done keeping certain moods and situations in mind. Green is the colour of the heart chakra, while red is for energy. White denotes peace.” she says.
Proud of her paintings, ‘Yagna’, she says tries to bring alive the role of yagna/havan in one’s life. The artist reveals that she connected with God while painting this piece. “It was almost as though, he was guiding me to get the real picture of the havankund,” says Surekha who has used colours like red, orange and yellow to bring the fire element alive on the canvas.