Stippling artist Sujata Dey who is the holder of India World Record for creating a canvas of 31ft /5 ft. in15 days, is holding her debut solo exhibition at Tribe Café. The exhibition that will continue the entire month follows a mixed theme and will transport you to moments captured by the artist in her paintings. Dey takes us through her exhibition and her process. Excerpts:
Tell us about your exhibition at Tribe Cafe.
Tribe café and its widely popular Art Space is promoting artists for the past one year and I am very fortunate to have my first solo exhibition being exhibited here. In this exhibition, I have put a mix of Stippling art and watercolours. Altogether there are 24 paintings and out of that 7 paintings are of Stippling art and 17 are watercolours. The theme of Stippling art is mixed. For example, in Ganesha with his Mother I have tried to put the eternal emotion between mother and child as a main point of focus. There is a picture of a sunset where the main aspect is the hue of the picture and through dots, I have attempted at transporting the viewers on an actual scene of sunset. Again, there is a depiction of Buddha and also a flowering tree. For the water-colour, I have displayed mostly sceneries like mountains and hills. Since my exhibition is happening in December and in the current situation all of us are craving for a vacation so I wanted to display these sceneries for people to enjoy.
The materials that I have primarily used are.07 & .005 Brusto pen for my Stippling art and Fabriano watercolour for the other paintings. In both cases, I have used 300 GSM cold press paper.
How long does it take for you to finish one Stippling art since it's very detailed?
Finishing an artwork totally depends upon the trigger that you have inside. Sometimes I work whole night when I get the drive to finish something that is throbbing in my mind. This is true for all artists I suppose. However, coming to Stippling art, since it is very detailed and time-consuming work, it takes about 4-5 days to complete an A4 size artwork.
Tell us about your association and journey with painting.
My love for painting began in my childhood. When others used to play, I used to paint randomly. I always wanted to pursue my dream of painting but our financial condition was not supportive of such an ambition. I do not have any formal training in painting. It was while working at a Nationalised Bank that my love for the art was rekindled. My Branch manager told me to pursue my dream and though it wasn’t easy I was persistent. eventually, I started focusing on Stippling Art and the back-to-back appreciations that I got in the form of awards at different venues, kept me motivated.