29 November,2013 06:02 AM IST | | Swapnal Tilekar
With the aim to preserve the dying art, culture and lifestyle of villages, artist Ramdas Lobhi is showcasing a new collection of rural portraits and landscapes. Titled Vivid Elite, the show captures all colours of life on a single canvas, portraying moments ofoptimism, joy and tranquillity that we go through in our day to day life.
The artist, who grew up in a small village in the Beed district of Maharashtra, works on both portraits as well landscapes, but he loves capturing rural landscapes and the people over there in their stark reality. The artist says that as a child he enjoyed playing with coloured pencils, and as time passed this small source of joy became his passion. "It was then that I decided to study art formally," he adds.
Ramdas Lobhi
But he is saddened by the realisation that the rural India that ignited his imagination may not be there for ever. The artist feels that with modernisation seeping into rural India, the simple but real beauty of the villages will be lost fore ever.
"I feel there's a need to capture the village life. I have seen the disappearance of so many native birds with my own eyes. Decorative Warli paintings, colorful rangolis and embroidery works, all are vanishing from villages. This is my way of preserving what may not be around too long. My ability to do this is the greatest gift that art has given me. It's why this medium gives me satisfaction and great pleasure," says Lobhi.
He feels that people from the city should come and visit the exhibition so that they could experience the conventional life of villages. The exhibition includes landscapes as well as people-themed works.
