Tina Chandroji is inspired by Michelangelo’s realism and Raja Ravi Verma ’s legacy
Artist Tina Chandroji's painting of a flower shop
In everyday life, how many times do we stop and think about creating a picture perfect frame, where every object is arranged in order and boasts of all possible shades that one can think of. The mundane scene from a nearby grocery story or a vegetable mandi is not exactly the place for finding inspiration. But for Mumbai-based artist Tina Chandroji the humdrum in these ordinary spaces became the central idea for her solo exhibition titled Cityscapes, which is going on in the Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi, till the September 19.
Branded with some of the most clichéd titles, the life-size canvases that Tina paints with her imaginary fine details display the settings of regular nook and corners fine-tuned with subtle as well as prominent religious additions. What catches your eye first is the detailed description of each and every object that you can see on the canvas. On the second look, it appears that these uncountable subjects in each frame are carefully painted and placed with a meticulous precision making it look like a real space.
The artist mentions that she loves to create such idyllic spaces by using the realism technique and oil on canvas as her medium. She says, “My first inspiration comes from my mother as she was the religious one in the family and we grew up on a staple diet of pujas and religious ceremonies. As a child I was very fond of eating, and I’d spend a lot of time in the market buying groceries and vegetables — these images stayed with me and became part of my art practice later on.”
A student of J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, Tina mentions “When I got married, my art director husband motivated me to take up photography. Photography helped me to understand image composition and how to construct an idea around the image.”
Even though the themes are very diverse, the 17 paintings with various interpretations have something in common. The artist elaborates, “The idea behind this is how Indian culture is intertwined with Gods of different religions. In India, people of different religions follow different Gods and everyone has a different occupation, but the common thing is that every one starts their day with God’s name and ends with his name. Hence, you’ll see that each painting has a reference of God in a unique way.”
Tina likes to work on two to three paintings simultaneously as oil takes time to dry on canvas. She says, “I apply layers in the first painting and start with the second till the first one dries up. I try to make the paintings as real as possible and use all the colours that we see in the real world.”
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