Monalisa Patsani
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, July 20: For most artists, having a spouse who is a source of support and inspiration is a dream come true. That holds true for Sovan Kumar and Helen Brahma, a couple renowned for their mastery in their respective fields of art.
While Sovan is a ceramic artist dabbling in sculptures and paintings, Helen is famous for her textile paintings which are the subject of worldwide acclaim. Both live in a beautifully-decorated home in the capital with their two kids.
The duo met for the first time at the BK College of Arts and Craft in the city, and both struck it off instantly.
“Both of us are contemporary painters and often come up with dual exhibitions. We mostly work on the same theme, but follow different styles of art. I mostly do sculptures and ceramic art while she paints with textile patterns. I’m a big fan of her work,” says Sovan of his wife.
Sovan pursued the study of sculptures and ceramic art in Beijing, and after returning from there he started a ceramic studio in his house in 1999 in which he would spend hours creating new things. “The love for ceramic art began in Beijing. After returning home, I built a studio in my house. Ceramic art is very high-profile in other countries, and was relatively new in Orissa when I started off. I used to buy material from outside the state as it was very scarce in the state. Apart from making crockery items, we taught our students the art of making murals, which later caught on in a big way,” said Sovan.
“He is a multi-talented person. Apart from being a good painter and sculptor, he is also a very good photographer. He is relentless in his pursuit of that one good shot, and climbs and crawls into uncomfortable positions to get a perfect photograph. He is also a mentor for my art,” said Helen.
A prolific painter, Helen started textile pattern painting in 2000 and soon earned a reputation for her distinguished style of art.
“Textiles are works of art. They come alive when we use them. I attempt to put life into a textile through my paintings. I focus mostly on Sambalpuri textile as the Sambalpuri Sari is the pride of Orissa. In 2004, I created a series of paintings with textile patterns based on Chausath Yogini which received huge appreciation. All the paintings were based on issues and themes revolving around women, and were justaposed with mythical and modern issues. So far I have made around 70 paintings on Sambalpuri series,” said Helen.
She is now busy making a drawing and painting series on Chausath Yogini’s ‘Bahana’ which will be exhibited in Delhi and Barcelona. “I am making a series of drawing and paintings on the Bahana of Chausathi Yogini which will be exhibited next year. It takes around one month to make a painting with textile patterns as it contains lots of minute details,” Helen said.
“This year, two of my paintings were selected for the national exhibition in Delhi, of which one of the paintings of Bahana series was exhibited. In the whole series, there is a mandala which means goddess. If you see the painting you won’t find any goddess, but I used mandala to symbolically signify a goddess which is connected with a stitch in the main painting. My drawing series will be exhibited in the new gallery at the airport next month,” she said.
The duo is now planning to start an art centre called ‘Kanti Centre for Art’ and the design of the building has been finalised. The husband and wife are looking for funding to begin construction. “In India, there is no gallery or museum for contemporary art whereas in European countries there are many beautiful art museums. Artists in European countries get a lot of scope to exhibit their works. But in India, only in Delhi and Gurgaon there are some private companies that have started some museums but that is not sufficient for all the contemporary artists of the country. We are still at a nascent stage. Contemporary artists can do with some support and the proposed Kanti Art Centre is our dream project in Orissa which we hope will be a source of encouragement for lots of artists in the state,” said Sovan.
“There are many artists in the state who have the potential to come up with good art but they don’t get buyers for their works. Art lovers and buyers mostly prefer to buy paintings from Baroda, Kolkata, and other parts of the country and our state gets nothing. Due to lack of opportunities, many artists from the state opt to stay in other parts of the country. We should rather work here and popularise the state in the field of creative art. National-level painting exhibitions often ask for regional artists and we believe such events give us an opportunity to establish ourselves,” she said.
