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 Size 30" x 36" Oil On Canvas |
 Size 36" x 60" Oil On Canvas |
EARTH SONGS
Many artists have journeyed within landscapes - seeking, exploring, its physicality and
recollecting it through memory. Gurudas Shenoy can be placed in the long history of
landscape painters of Karnataka. This landscape genre was also a creative expression in
vernacular poetry. In painting it was sustained by pushing the limits of the British
academic landscape painting tradition that depicted the picturesque in nature. The
artistists acquired many devices and skills of using water colours in its prestine purity-
"maintaining the freshness of colors".
Gurudas was academically trained in the figurative trend of Baroda. In his early works he
relates to his immediate surroundings like in the series of museum interiors. One of his
early landscapes of Mysore was a skillful study of the elements of nature. This led to
physically exploring the terrain from strategic positions - mapping, trekking, and
recording to recollect these settings in his later works.
The artist has evolved a technique that extracts a simplified and bold pattern from the
natural surroundings. This style is expressive rather than descriptive, he successfully
transposes into oils the technique of water color, a medium associated with lightness and
fluency to capture fleeting atmospheric effects.
The artist skillfully selects from vistas of nature, he composes the brittle stillness of
rocks, textured boulders punctuated with surging waters that ebb and flow in the
wilderness. The spontaneous directness of this technique transforms the pictorial space
with this motifs.
The stark dramatic tropical light is depicted in free and swift brush work. The terrain is
uninhabitated and melancholic, it is a nostalgic memory of an urban artist's yearning of
the picturesque and the transience of nature.
SURESH JAYARAM
Note: The landscape genre in Karnataka can be traced back to the Oaty landscapes of K.K.
Hebbar is another significant name who sustained a keen interest in this form. Other
artists who specialized and excelled in this field were M.S. Chandrashekar, Rumale,
Hanumiah for picturising native and picturesque Scenes. The second generation of artists
include G.S. Shenoy and PunchitayaWho pushed it further by abstracting the landscape in
the tradition of nature based abstraction.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
The beauty of the trees,
The softness of the air,
The fragrance of the grass,
Speaks to me.
The submit of the Mountain,
The thunder of the sky,
The rhythm of the sea,
Speaks to me.
"I perceive my work as a natural extension of the expression of joy, evolving itself
and metamorphosing into paintings. Joy takes on many forms, many colours…"
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