Painting the everyday life in India in different shades, four artists come together to provide Puneites with a visual treat

Reflections 2008 brings together under one roof the paintings of four renowned Indian artists. The works of Suhas Bahulkar, Vasudeo Kamath, Milind Mullick and Ravi Paranjape on display skillfully blend the diverse styles and mediums of these painters to present the common theme of everyday life in India, which bonds all the paintings.

" My art is influenced by the nostalgic memories that I have of this city," says Suhas Bahulkar whose paintings depict women draped in the traditional nine-yard sari and gold jewellery with predominant use of the colour orange. Using oil, acrylic and gold leaf as his medium, one of his prize paintings at the gallery, has been inspired by the hanging of the Chapekar brothers of Pune in 1897, who shot Charles Walter Rand, who while in charge of the Plague in Pune had unleashed a reign of terror and atrocities. " The impact of circumstances on human nature move me, like the impact that the hangings of the brothers must have had on their family."

Milind Mullick on the other hand portrays his impressions of everyday life as cityscapes. His paintings depict slick street scenes on a rainy day and rooftops all splashed in blue-gray watercolours. In complete contrast and spaced strategically were the vibrantly hued paintings of Ravi Paranjape. "I try to find visual melodies hidden behind reality and then infuse my canvas with that music," he says of his art, which runs into a riot of pinks, mauves, aquamarine and purple. Using oil on canvas, his paintings are more of a representational style, where the subject is easily identifiable.

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