Most homes one visits or one out of every 10 people you meet will either have a sculpture, a painting or at least a wall hanging of Lord Buddha. Because, Buddha is considered as the epitome of peace. Showcasing this aspect of Lord Buddha were two shows — a solo art show, The Awakened Life of Buddha by Makrand Jadhav, at Alankritha Art Gallery and Eternal Enlightenment, a group art show by 44 artists at Ailamma Art Gallery.
Riding solo
Makrand Jadhav was first struck by this need to suddenly create a Buddha painting, “That was 12 years ago. One night after listening to a speech on meditation and life, I just wanted to paint Buddha’s face. After that, there was no stopping,” says the Pune-based artist who has been only creating artworks based on Buddha ever since.
“Over the years, I started reading more about his life and the incidents that shaped it and I created my paintings based on these stories,” he says. And this can be seen in his artworks, for instance, there is a painting where an emancipated Buddha is seen with a few grains of rice in his hand. Makrand says, “There was a time when Buddha ate very little, as little as a few morsels of rice and so I showed that in my artwork,” he explains.
44 faces of Buddha
At the group show Eternal Enlightenment, 44 artists made sure that they each dwelt upon the different moods of Buddha and there were a few that stood out.Take for example, artist B. Jayalakshmi’s work. Don’t let the semi-abstract work fool you, because the medium used is rare and ancient. “I used an encaustic medium (a mixture of wax and resin),” says Jayalakshmi. “This is one of the earliest known mediums and when mummies from Faiyum, Egypt, were discovered, their caskets were found to have paintings created in these mediums.”
The other painting that got attention was Telangana artist Kappari Kishan’s work. The artist who is known to constantly depict a ‘woman’s plait’ in his artworks did not give his signature a miss. “The plait is my way of depicting women from Telangana and since I like Buddha’s philosophy, I wanted to mix both,” Kishan explains. True to that, his artwork shows a woman gazing at Buddha. “The lady in my artwork is a reflection of my thoughts and she too worships Lord Buddha. That is why you find her with her back towards the viewer, staring at Buddha,” he adds.
The art show also showcased works of artist A. Rajeswara Rao among others. Rajeswara says, “This is the first time I’m doing a thematic show as well as artworks on Buddha. My artworks here are based on the teachings of Buddha that I had learnt when I was in school. Also, for my artwork instead of showing the light that emanates from Buddha using paints, I placed lights near the artwork to show it.”
