Did Rabindranath Tagore name Chameli Ramachandran after the jasmine flower foreseeing her lifelong association with nature? Unlikely. But glimpses of such a chord were on display at Ramachandran’s recent show, Roots to Petals, Peaks to Sea, at Gallery Rasa in association with the Vadehra Art Gallery. In a world where conceptual art is à la mode, Ramachandran’s artworks are both a rarity and refreshing.
Deft brushstrokes in the most diluted of ink and watercolour washes lend an ethereal quality to her flower and nature studies. Mostly isolated against a white background, her nature studies celebrate the beauty in the minutiae of the natural world. Take, for instance, her orchids: each petal has striated highlights to indicate the leathery texture of the petals, rendering depth to the flatness of the medium. This is especially difficult to achieve given that she often works with just one colour for per piece.
One can also spot a kinship with other artists, the most obvious of these being with Hokusai — both Ramachandran and the Japanese master manage to capture the hypnotic crest of the froth that tops each wave in a manner that animates their work. But a more discerning eye might also spot in her shimul flowers a hint of the vision of her teacher, Benode Behari Mukherjee; in her calla lilies, the reverence that was characteristic of Diego Rivera’s celebrated portrayal of the same flower; the rhythm that breathes life into her long, almost swaying, trees could also be found in the works of Xu Beihong.
Isolated studies of flowers and trees have mostly been relegated to botanical paintings with an underlying scientific motive. But Ramachandran’s art rescues flower studies from such objective obscurity, celebrating the aesthetics of nature. To her, the natural world is not a source of symbols to deliver deeper messages. It is just a limitless source of beauty that is almost spiritual in nature.
