An artist explores human relationships on canvas

New Delhi, Aug 12 (UNI) A self taught artist, Aditya Dev Sharma uses colours to explore human relationships on canvas.

This is evident at his ongoing solo show at the AIFACS art gallery here, especially a painting titled ''Don't leave me'', where he portrays a woman trying to hold on to a man as he hurries away.

''Men love freedom, while women tend to hold on to a relationship with all her love and care. She can make any kind of relations beautiful, whereas a man is dutiful, he has responsibilities, so even while loving his woman he tries to move away. But craving his love, the woman tries to hold him,'' Aditya said about the painting.

About the overwhelming presence of women in his works, which tend to switch between realistic touches and the abstract, he said, ''Women always become the main character in my sketches because no creation is possible without a woman. I feel women are the strongest, they can rule the world.

They can break all barriers, fight, struggle and make an effort to win- which I have portrayed in my sketch ''Journey In Process''.

This painting depicts a nude, standing resolutely against a backdrop of chaos and the work gives an effect of having been chiseled out of stone.

As many as 140 paintings are on display at the exhibition concluding on August 14. Asked how he manages to balance his career as a manufacturer of rubber products and amateur artist, Aditya smiled.

''After the day's struggle, when the night comes, I get the spiritual force to express my thoughts. The fight going in my mind gets resolved and my brush just moves bringing out my feelings," he explained.

In his 25 years of artistic journey, he has experimented with ink, pen, oils, acrylic and watercolours, trying out various kinds of layers and textures.

''Presently I have a strong hold on acrylic colours. I also like to paint in black and white ink, which shows the origin of mind with the movement of sound,'' he said.

Aditya has also been dabbling in Hindi poetry during his leisure hours for almost 20 years. ''I have taken both painting and poetry as a medium to express myself. Even though I started it as a hobby, poetry has been always the source of inspiration for my sketches. It gives me the depth, the passion to go beyond imagination and express my emotion, my anger and my love through paintings.'' 'Bheed Ki Barf', his second collection of poems illustrated with sketches was also released during the current exhibition. About the title, he said "Bheed" (crowd) is like ice, it is so thick but melts away after some time.

Asked about his favourite colours, he said, ''my artistic colour is black. I feel it captures the whole world and it supports other colours. The outside world is small but inside us the world is vast.

And this colour make us feel about our inner world.'' He said one of his paintings titled ''The strength of inner power'' has been selected by the AIFACS Art Gallery for their annual function.

Priced at Rs 67 lakh, it is also on display along with his other pictures that carry a minimum price of Rs 13,000.

About his artistic inspirations, Aditya named MF Hussain as the foremost. ''Hussain Sahab is a person who have completely changed the definition of art. I want to be a big painter like him, he had made an honest effort and succeeded.'' UNI