South Mumbai gallery celebrates four decades of watercolours with icon Samir Mondal

Moon by Samir MondalReminiscences is an ongoing solo exhibition at Jamaat Art Gallery of the work of Samir Mondal A master of watercolour he has been painting for 40 years Mondal who hails from Balti a small village in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal began his career in Mumbai with the Illustrated Weekly of IndiaDomestic by Samir MondalPutting the initial years of struggle behind Mondal went on to become the watercolour guru of India He was also involved in the revival and development of watercolour art and is now a part of the global watercolour art movement His discussions and works are part of international art books and magazines and his techniques are taught at several art colleges around the world He is a part of the planning for international watercolour expositions and on the jury of various international watercolour competitionsSamir MondalThe love for the medium Mondal says has been a long one ldquoEven before going to art college I had developed a liking for water colours and natural colours It is a kind of fundamental medium that most artists start their work with and eventually move on to other mediardquo he saysHe points out that a lot of traditional Indian art like Mughal miniatures or frescos at Ajanta and Ellora were done in watercolourldquoThese paintings were imaginative and thematic unlike the European art that Indians picked up which was more about painting what one seesrdquo Mondal explains Mondalrsquos paintings bring alive faces landscapes flowers butterflies animals mdash images with a haunting quality ldquoI started painting classical landscapes and eventually went on to create contemporary conceptual art You can see some of the landscapes in this exhibitionrdquo he saysAnother abiding trait in Mondalrsquos work is picking simple objects to paint and turning them into thought provoking compositions In his career there have been several exhibitions Some of the landmark art inlcudes The War The Butterflies was during the first Gulf War and featured shapes of the desert and other inspirations from the first televised war Letrsquos Rock was about urban life and the complexities of the city ldquoAs an artist I have always been influenced by the world around merdquo Mondal signs off