The canvas is the mirror

Self-portraits, colourful markets of Uzbekistan to lush green Kerala landscapes... The exhibition Mirror Man, Mirror Me’, isa showcase in Delhi of one of Shibu Natesan’s largest watercolour collections.

- SRESTHA SARKAR

WITH the advent of technology, photographs may have replaced paintings but nothing can ever substitute the human touch.

Technology and AI can never do what a stroke of a brush can, says artist Shibu Natesan at his solo watercolour exhibition at Delhi's Art Alive gallery.

Natesan travels the world with his empty canvas, ready to fill it with things his eyes capture. From the colourful markets of Uzbekistan to the lush green Kerala temples, his brush fills life into all. His exhibition, 'Mirror Man, Mirror Me', showcases one of his largest watercolour collections to date. Spanning two floors of the gallery, the show traces Natesan's evolving visual vocabulary over the past decade.

Known for his fusion of hyperrealism and surreal symbolism, Natesan's art captures intricate detail, exploring light, shadow, and atmosphere with precision.

His recent works echo the serenity of 19th- and early-20thcentury European Impressionists while reflecting his meditative approach to painting.

Born in Trivandrum in 1966, Natesan discovered his passion for painting early in life and was trained at the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, during the politically charged 1980s.