In tune with nature

Artist Suruchi Jamkar describes herself as a “human sponge” who travels to places with an empty mind and absorbs the culture of the place which finds an influence in her work as well. And in her 27th solo exhibition which features a majority of Suruchi’s works since 2011, the canvases have captured the profundity of ancient stone sculptures in Hampi along with  female forms reclining against huge boulders amidst nature. The artist who moved to Hyderabad in 2009, is an alumnus of JJ School of Arts in Mumbai. She had started off at first by just painting ants. “I found their determination and team work so fascinating that I painted ants for a year,” she says.

Over the years, Suruchi has learnt pottery in the town of Bhadravati in Maharashtra; she has made frescos in Vana-sthali, Rajasthan, moved around in Ladakh and painted the Himalayas for four years where the prayer flags added a sense of spirituality to her work. During her stay in Rajasthan, the colourful turbans that the locals wear had surfaced in her work as well. Speaking of her extensive travels she says, “It is said ‘Life is a Journey’. And I live two such lives, one on the canvas and the other in reality, both influencing each other.”

“During my trips, I take a lot of photographs, make notes, and write a daily entry in my diary.  And then it could be a few days or almost a month before I sit in front of a blank canvas and let the images from my mind come out,” she adds. Suruchi says that she looks up to the works of artist Laxma Goud, for his “bold selection of subjects and the wide range of media he uses to express them.” She is planning to move to the Nilgiris for a year, where she would spend time creating new artworks for her upcoming show in The Visual Art Gallery in New Delhi.