Journey from homemaker to passionate artist

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As children, we all loved sketching and playing with crayons. Mixing those bright shades, the distorted human figures, the orange sun rising from between the green, “pointed” hills… these images were an intrinsic part of our childhood.

Aruna Tewari was no different. As a child, she always had a keen interest in pencil sketching. As she grew up, her passion for painting never died, but she could not pursue it as earnestly as she wished because of her commitments, first towards education and later towards her family. However, she never gave up on her dream, as the saying goes, the fruit of perseverance is sweet. Today, Tewari feels proud to host her first solo exhibition in the capital, “Mesmerising reverberations of love”.
Her journey from being a homemaker to an artist, she believes, was interesting and ironic. On one hand, it delayed her opportunity to devote all her time to painting and, on the other, it has also given her complete freedom now to pursue it as a profession.
Born in November 1974 in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Tewari concluded her early education from the Methodist High School, and her teacher’s training course from St Mary’s Convent, Allahabad, just before her marriage in May 1995. It was only in 2002 that she had the urge to experiment with oil/acrylic colours. She never had any formal training in art, which gave her the freedom to just let her own thoughts flow out on the canvas. She started exploring a new world of art in the scenic environment of Himachal Pradesh, where her husband was posted for work. The lack of training made her hesitant initially to give shape to her ideas with the painting brush, but with the passage of time she developed the skill and confidence. Today she prefers acrylic over oil painting in view of the former’s inherent advantages — the ease of painting and the fact that it dries up quickly.
Tewari does not regret her lack of formal training when she started out. After arriving in Delhi in 2009, she joined the Delhi College of Arts for two years, but that was just to have an idea of what is taught in art courses. She believes that art cannot be taught; at the end of the day, it has to be a direct communication between the artist and his/her canvas. Her solo exhibition, underway at the Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, till April 18, features 20 paintings, all of which will be in oil and acrylic.
“I want my paintings to have a lively appearance rather than a dull look. Also I do not like to paint sad paintings, hence I employ bright shades,” she says.
So far, Aruna’s works have focused on themes of womanhood and love. “As a woman I can connect with other women and their thoughts. That helps me in portraying the various moods and feelings of a woman. Love as you know is an integral part of a woman’s life. Through my paintings I want to portray how she experiences
different forms of love
from birth till death,” she adds. —MS