Vikram Marathe places iron objects—a nail, a junked diya, a door knob —on wet paper.  The rust colours come on to the surface. They have a connection with the image in the painter’s mind, and often, they extend to unknown frontiers. The artist consciously avoids application of external water-based or acrylic paint on paper, but lets the rust assume surprising shapes.  

In his recent Lockdown Faces series, the rust residue on paper gave birth to visages that resembled the Punekars whom he had chanced upon during the curfew.  But, one of them stood out as the bespectacled song writer-peace activist John Lennon, who resides in Marathe’s consciousness. The faces in the series came to life with the red, blue and black carbon traced on paper.  But, essentially it was a play with the residual brown. Marathe banked on shades from flakes and corrosive scrap.