From Nandi Hills to MG Road: Watercolourist Manjunath Wali maps Bengaluru’s heritage in a postcard series
Bengaluru’s vibrancy is an evergreen story that can be endlessly narrated. The cultural impact on its inhabitants are more often than not sourced from the city’s iconic landmarks and landscapes. Artist Manjunath Wali echoes the preservation and vibrancy of this precise heritage in his upcoming watercolour artworks exhibition Keepers of Time – Postcards from Bangalore, curated by Artenblu. The project that has been under work since the past one year, is a move away from stamp-sized artworks that he received accolades for. From the iconic Nandi Hills to the Bengaluru Palace and other spots, this series exhibits a whole lot of emotions and love for the city that will be appreciated by many. We chat with Manjunath to learn more.
Brushstrokes of Bengaluru: Manjunath Wali’s ‘Keepers of Time’ postcards capture a city’s iconic landmarks
How did you finalise the postcard format for this series?
Before the postcard, I was part of a stamp-sized group show where I did a Hampi series. This was part of a stamp show organised by The Chennai Art Foundation. During that show, I met Bengaluru-based art historian Anil Kumar. He suggested I start a series on Bengaluru sites and historical places. Then, when I travelled to Bengaluru, I used to go to these spots and make many plein air artworks. Sometimes I do plein air watercolour work and complete some of it on the spot. And when I came back to the studio again, I was recording all of that — adding and deleting. This is how I went from the stamp-size to a postcard.
What made these landmarks in Bengaluru important subjects beyond the nostalgia?
Every type of architecture and monument — quite traditional places in Bengaluru — they speak a lot, actually. Also history will remain history. We cannot correct it because history has already been created. And we should not touch that. Therefore, we have to preserve however it is. There are things like the path and the architecture and locations like MG Road and Lal Bagh, where parts of their landscapes like many trees — are being disqualified already. And so there are things which we have to preserve and through the Keepers of Time – Postcards from Bangalore series I’m just asking for the preservation of history and the emotions associated with it.
Were there any landmarks or elements that you particularly found satisfying to capture?
I’d like to talk about trees here. There are the pink and yellow blossom trees. Every year they bloom on the city’s streets and parks. Based on them I have done two works — the pink and yellow blossom trees. And these have a natural cycle. Here I can talk about Venkatappa Pond. It is my favourite place. In the artist community, we often gather there, sit together and even work together.
Watercolour is quite the challenging medium to work with. With immense experience in this area, what techniques did you use for this range?
With this series I wanted to make it more detailed. However between half of the work itself it seemed to be finishing. For this medium, we don’t use white paint as the paper itself is white. So, when you are doing watercolours, you have to be very careful where to leave the white, where to do the layer and that was the main thing. I used wet and wet and other such techniques for this one. The main challenge for this was that it was a smaller size and its process was quite tough.
What have you planned next for a series?
I’m going to find some more subjects and do a stamp series for Bengaluru.
Entry free. April 11, 11 am onwards. At MKF Museum of Art, Lavelle Road.