Artist’s contemporary lift to temple murals

Coimbatore:Inspired by the temple murals of Tamil Nadu, the earliest of which are a 1,000 years old, the paintings of artist Gita are contemporary works drawn from temple architecture and sculptures.

The paintings on display at Kasthuri Sreenivasan trust art gallery on Avinashi road use pigments that are synthesised and globally resourced, against the original murals that were painted with natural pigments and thus had limited colour palette.

“As it is impossible to simply copy any work of art, I have tried to give these images a contemporary tone, depth and texture while transporting them on to my canvases. This I hope is a modest contribution to the conservation of the visual heritage of temple mural painting culture,” she said.

Trained in arts and holding a masters in Psychology, Gita has been engaged in art exhibitions since the early ‘90s. Her works are semi abstract with the suggestion of a female form, architecture, musical instruments, or some combination of these elements.

They simultaneously explore colour, texture, line and form, not as juxtapositions or layers but as integral to one another. She has been working as programme officer for Dakshinchitra, a heritage museum in Chennai, for the past five years.