Vithika  
Jayasri Burman
Creating Realism on Canvas – 2

Burman insists that her art has been a reflection of her personal life. Even though she had always been fond of art, the decision to become a professional only blossomed into a serious pursuit after her marriage with artist Paresh Maity. "Paresh was a frequent visitor at our home because of my uncle. On one of these visits I ventured to show him a few of my works and he invited me to join him in an art camp he was organising at Ajmer. At first I was diffident about my abilities and shied away but Paresh was hurt at my hesitancy and brusquely chided me about being content to wallow in mediocrity and anonymity. I was piqued and decided to join the art camp."

Post marriage, her commitment to art became integral to her thought process - symbols and motifs seamlessly wove themselves as references from her childhood. "On starry nights, while we sat on the terrace, our elders would relate mythological stories and all those characters would mesh into themes that emerged as art motifs in my work. Now, when I am asked where I get my mythological references for my work, my answer is that they do not coincide with any authentic narrative but are figments of my childhood imagination that have surfaced on the canvas as figures and forms that I paint."

Thus the Brahma depiction at the top of one such conglomerate stimulates one's memories of myths but none of the known ones seems to fit this jigsaw of terrestrial and ethereal detailing.

And then there are the colours from her palette, of which red is predominant. Contrasts are produced through stark white or turmeric or ochre or blue and the subjects change from mythology to reclining females, rotund and indulgent, complete with hand fan, a cluster of soft pillows and the sensuous pleasure of a leisurely afternoon nap. Lingering over the composition, one can almost feel one's eyelids begin to droop and the feet begin to sag. "Her face is not real," says Burman, "but I make sure that all my creations are natural. She is the charming delicate side of woman; her comfortable posture suggests a kind of intimacy, as we all like to indulge ourselves."

From ice blue maidens and deep dark pools, Burman's art has taken a quantum leap into flirtatious oranges, strident sunlight, and the earth sprouting into fantasy growth. This is the unrestrained, experimentally inclined side of an artist who wants to make a statement of breaking free in symbolic and narrative terms.

Yet the leitmotif of water creatures, are ever recurrent in her cosmos of vermilion and sunshine. Is this a limiting factor then? The artist is candid. "I don't know but I can't think of painting without them. In real life I can't swim despite my father taking me to the water's edge and trying to coax me into the waters. I just sat on the pool edge, admiring the other folk in the water, fascinated and drawn by the sense of adventure and yet not having the courage to step in myself."

Perhaps Burman is this onlooker sitting by life's edge - creating exuberant tones, holding everyday reality in an impressionistic sheath, painting memory, legend, and a little bit of her own self, into a splendid panorama of myth and reality.

– Subhra Mazumdar
April 10, 2005

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By arrangement with Womens Feature Service

   
  1. Satish Gujaral   
  2. Maqbool Fida Husain   
  3. K.K. Hebbar  
  4. N.S. Bendre    
  5. Raja Ravi Verma    
  6. Manu Parekh   
  7. Jehangir Sabavala   
  8. Anjali Arora    
  9. Umashankar Sharma   
10. Samir Mondal   
11. Durlabh Singh  
12. Varma Youngo 
13. Jayasri Burman 
14. Rama Suresh  
15. Anju Badhwar Vora  

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