The Barpali Days: Amarjeet Maan : The Art as clear as Crystal

The greatest scientists on this planet never went to attend the classes at MIT, nor the most successful businessmen ever graduated from Harvard. Likewise we in India got a prolific lady artist who in fact never went to any art school or college to hone her skills in this field. And it is artist Amarjeet Maan. She was born and brought up in Bangalore, but settled in Nagpur since her marriage. Her art works looks more Western. Her paintings are soft in colour and give a soothing effect to the eyes that gaze at them. She has the unusual abilities to make her paintings transparent. Have a close look on the cover photo given above, you ought to be under the illusion of it being a photograph clicked by a DSLR camera from a close range.

Amarjeet brought forward the attributes of her past life started and started playing with colours early. But when her son started going to school, it was her mother who inspired her to make best use of her time by doing art. She learnt how to keep and equilibrium in her life while balancing domestic responsibilities on the one hand and her passion for art on the other end.

Unlike other artists she do not travel thousands of miles to a picturesque location to do her paintings. While staying back at home she just observes at the objects placed around the living room and start paintings. For example look at the image given above titled “Fish out of Water”. It’s the painting of glassware that was placed on her study table. The colours she applies are much softer and soothing for the curious eyes to gaze at. Your spirit ought to uplift instantly while having a glimpse at her paintings.

Initially Amarjeet used to do art with oil paints. She is fond of canines and was rearing a German shepherd at home. Every night when Amarjeet would be painting, her pet called Coffee would sit near her. Like any other dog once in a while Coffee would start scrubbing either her abdomen or the ears. As a consequence Coffee’s hair would fly and stick to the wet oil paints on the canvas. As a consequence her art works would damage. Amarjeet was in a great dilemma thinking what to do. She could neither disown her pet, nor could discard the damaged paintings. A dear friend of her suggested to try an alternative medium of colours and it was water colours. Water color dries faster when applied on paper and the fur of the dog would not stick on the paint. And the idea worked. Amarjeet found the application of water colour highly effective and gradually she fell in love with this pigment of colours.

During June 2017 Amarjeet took a trip to Banaras located on the banks of river Ganga. It is one of the holiest pilgrim places for Hindus. Our artist was captivated by this colourful city which is submerged in the ethos of Hindu religious values since time immemorial. She spent two weeks over there and made a series of paintings.

It is worth watching the

portrait of a Hindu priest while offering arati(fire) to river Ganga which is considered to be the holiest river on earth.

On the other hand look at the painting titled “Longing”. It’s a portrait of an old man of Ladhak. You need to look at the expressions of the eyes of this person. He is waiting for his son who in fact has left this Himalayan mountain range in search of greener pasture. One cannot ignore the wrinkles on the face of this old man.

Her paintings have travelled far and wide and exhibited by International Watercolour Society. Until now they were exhibited at Albania, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and at Fabriano in Italy.

In India we got a male dominated society. Over here women have to lead an introvert life, within the periphery of their homes. Women seldom come to public life. But Amarjeet able to break all such orthodox norms. Apart from fine art Amarjeet has got a passion for photography as well. She travelled across the nook and corner of India. With the lenses of her DSLR camera she has captured Indian wildlife and forests in finer details. Just look at the head of an Indian Bison popped out in a tea garden at Valparai in Tamil Nadu located on the southern end of India. On the other hand she has tracked the heights of Himalayan mountain ranges to capture its scenic beauty.