The Jew Street in Mattanchery is rich with its cultural traditions and innovations; and the never-ending flow of foreigners to Mattanchery only testifies to its greatness, past and present.
The Hallegua D Art Contemporain there witnessed the rise of three innate women painters — Nalini Rajappan, Lathika Vijayaraghavan, and Aparna Vivek.
The exhibition being held at the Hallegua Art Gallery showcased the real portraits of life painted by them.
The exhibition contains 33 photos including oil paintings, acrylic paintings, tanjore paintings, mural paintings, and one portrait.
Murals include mainly those of deities like Krishna, Ganesh, goddess Saraswathy with Veena, Kali, Shiva and Parvathy and the ever-romantic pair Krishna and Radha. Other paintings comprise sceneries, flowers, women, Buddha, etc.
All the three painters are relatives and they are conducting their initial exhibition here. Lathika learnt painting from Vimalalayam, Ernakulam.
She has been doing painting for over 15 years. She does oil painting, stained glass painting, charcoal and pencil sketching, fabric painting etc. Lathika frequently conducts classes for young talents. She is now settled as a housewife in Thrissur.
Aparna is a self-taught artist working mainly with oil paints. She is a housewife, now settled in Bangalore. Nalani has been painting from 1989. She practised painting in the Indian School of Art, Ravipuram.
Even though all of them have been doing painting for a long time, they haven’t exhibited their paintings anywhere so far. Nor did they take painting as a profession.
Nalini is working in the specialist hospital, Ernakulam and belongs to Palarivattom, Ernakulam. “We usually paint by imitating a model. We never paint from imagination.
We experiment with the photos on postcards, calendars etc. What’s essential is we observe things around us keenly, even during journeys”, says Nalini.
The exhibition began on January 14 and will end on January 23. Foreigners and natives visit the exhibition and there indeed are positive responses. The reception this exhibition got inspires them to undertake more such shows.
The Hallegua D Art Contemporain conducts exhibitions frequently and some of the exhibitors intend to sell them also.
