The Palette of Dreams

Bright, sparkly, rippling with life and energy, bursting with love and longing, artist Samir Sarkar's paintings are sheer poetry written with colours

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For many artists, the idea that acrylics belong in a kindergarten classroom rather than an established painter's studio begins in art school. Professors have been known to drill art students with unspoken rules like "don't paint a large sculpture red," "don't put a circle in the middle of a composition," and "serious painters use oils, not acrylics." This final generalisation, passed down from one pompous painter to the next, is, in many ways, a grave misfortune. "For the past 25 years, acrylic colour has been the main medium for my paintings," says Kolkata-based contemporary artist Samir Sarkar. "After doing the line drawing on paper or canvas, and many layers of colour, the subjects and people are slowly given shape using more layers of colour," he says.

Since he uses fast colours, Sarkar says his figures have a definite brightness about them. "They are inspired from Egyptian paintings, thus the figures are drawn in the same form, the clothes they wear have long lines making them look taller and in a way Egyptian. Most of my paintings are of 42%2X482 size, which takes about 100 hours to complete," he informs. If you look at his work, it's like sheer poetry written with colours.

Bright, sparkly, rippling with life and energy, bursting with love and longing. Vivacious yet leaving you with a sense that real life would struggle to match up with those colourful renditions. Using strong visual elements and bright colours, his artwork makes you want to just sit there and get lost in the fantasy world. An S Armyman's son, Sarkar remembers having to change cities every two-three years during his childhood.