Three painters depict nature and women in group show

Portraying multiple aspects related to nature and women, a group of three women artists have come together for a group painting exhibition at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture.
Artist Uma Bardhan weaves her protagonists - women, birds, Hindu Gods and Goddesses and other natural elements - into visual thought using colour, textures and the all-inclusive spirit of Mother Nature in her works.
Kusumita Bhattacharya, another participating artist, paints urban landscapes and the joys of everyday life. "Marriage and associated rituals occupy a central place in my works. Then there is one painting - of a watermelon market, which is my favourite," says Bhattacharya, who also paints on silk.

The third artist of the show Debika Mukherjee paints women with a sprinkling of wishful thinking.
"There is a lady with lots of butterflies in the frame... symbolising the need for growing wings or liberty inherent in an oppressive society," says Mukherjee who mostly paints in acrylic.
Bardhan specialises in figurative paintings and landscapes using water colour on silk.
Besides expressing the lives of women in rural Bengal in these paintings, she has also done a series of paintings dedicated to hand-rickshaw pullers struggling with human loads on their vehicles.
"The dark colour tone used in the paintings represents the poverty and sweat of innocent rickshaw pullers struggling to earn a living," says Bardhan.