Poonam Bhatnagar uses web technique to create magic on canvas
New Delhi / April 15, 2024
New Delhi, Apr 15: A chance encounter with a spider’s gossamer-thin web – sparkling like an array of diamonds with the raindrops clinging to its silken orb – triggered Poonam Bhatnagar’s artistic impulse, inspiring her to craft web-like fine intricate strokes in her paintings, giving them an illusory effect.
Though not formally trained in art, Poonam has made imaginative use of her training as a textile designer to weave intricate patterns in her paintings of gods and goddess, picturesque cities, and nature.
Twenty-four of the artist’s acrylic on canvas works are on display at Bikaner House from April 12-17, her first solo exhibition titled ‘Between Dreams’.
The exhibition, on view at Kalamkaar on the first floor of Bikaner House from 11 am to 7 pm, was inaugurated on April 12 evening by noted film director, artist and author Muzaffar Ali amongst a packed hall at Bikaner House.
Curated by noted art historian and scholar Uma Nair and organised by Masha Art, the exhibition is classified under the sections ‘Mythos’, ‘Cityscapes’, the ‘Vriksha’ series, ‘Portraits Old and New’, and ‘Shunya’.
Poonam says she chanced upon the spider’s web during a trip to Gangtok some five-six years back during the rainy season. The web under a railing shone like a ‘chandelier’ with the rain drops.
“It is while trying to recreate the spider’s web on canvas that I developed my technique. And because this texture is derived from the spider‘s web, I named it web cast,” says the artist.
She has used this unique web style in her works under the section ‘Mythos’, ‘Cityscapes’ and ‘Shunya’, imparting them with a surreal three-dimensional effect.
The fine strokes of her brush combined with the geometric patterns -- of horizontal and vertical lines, merging with tiny squares and large circles and waves, imbue a cosmic quality to her paintings of Shiva as Nataraja (5x4 feet canvas), Krishna as Vishwaroopa (5X3.5 feet), Saraswati playing the veena (6x4 feet) and Shiva and Parvati (4.5x4 feet).
Before wielding her brush, Poonam used to design saris for a well-known brand. She would initially paint on paper and later switched to canvas. It was only when a friend of her father-in-law told her to send her works for exhibitions that she got serious. In 2016, she participated in her first exhibition, a group event where she showcased two paintings.
Curator Uma Nair says, “Poonam’s understanding of textile tradition comes into her illusion work when you look at the closer details. She uses her own terms, but what enchants is the technique, the treatment and her compositional control.”
Describing Poonam’s ‘dreamscapes as are imagined environments’, Masha Art Gallery CEO Samarth Mathur says, “She has developed a singular method for creating illusion textured landscapes and cityscapes and richly detailed images depicting scenes that merge fantastical worlds with narratives from her own life.”
Poonam does her compositions directly on the canvas, and prefers to work on large canvasses.
“I love to work on large canvases,” says Poonam, adding that she uses charcoal or marker to draw the geometric lines on the canvas.
While painting, she gets totally absorbed. “I don’t count the time. I can’t wait to see my work completed, so I stop everything else. Food and sleep don’t matter to me when I am painting. And I paint continuously. I don’t have patience,” She reveals.
Her ‘Cityscapes’ are interesting in her treatment of cities abroad, like Zurich, Venice or London. The angles of the buildings and her palette of soft monochromatic colours imbue the city scenes with a different life.
Two paintings in this section, titled ‘Another World 1 and 2’, are striking for their composition, geometric patterns and bold colours.
“It is a fusion of different architectural and building styles that I liked in Europe. Somewhere I liked a pillar, or I liked the doors in some other place. It is like abstract art and has a 3 D effect,” explains Poonam.
In the ‘Vriksha’ series, Poonam has given free rein to her imagination, combining her portraiture of trees, rolling hills, pathways through forests and a rising sun in her works ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Pathways’ ‘Birdsong’ with its soft colour palette is an evocative and soothing piece, while ‘Wilderness 1 and 2’ are abstract pieces and eye-catching.
Her ‘Pensive Portraits’ paintings are arresting in the treatment of the subject.
Interestingly, Poonam says she had been told by people that she was “no good” at portraits and should stop making them, and she did so.
But curator Uma Nair liked her pieces, done some years ago. On her request, Poonam got them framed again for the show.
“She encouraged me to do portraits,” says Poonam, and on Uma’s request she has done four portraits of yesteryears’ heroines Suchitra Sen, Madhabi Mukherjee, Meena Kumari and Madhubala. The four works, done mostly in black and white do justice to the mesmerising beauty of the heroines.
Poonam’s ‘Shunya’, a solo canvas of 5x2.5 feet, has a tapestry-like structure with vertical geometric lines intermingling with large circles, with flowers at the edges. Executed in her unique spider web style, it has a three-dimensional effect.
Says Uma Nair of Poonam: “It's good to discover a woman artist who is waiting in the wings with her brilliance in so many genres --landscapes, portraits, cityscapes and her illusion technique. As a curator I believe women artists are the album of the future; they are the lab of protagonists who in the solitude of their studios and homes will unveil the world as the one place where all questions of equity, of the chaos of race, of the beauty of hope, and their inner fears of recognition and appreciation will converge and coalesce to create a mosaic of memories to cherish. Between Dreams is about all this, yes, in a way, I'm an architect of dreams too.”
