)
Chameli Ramachandran’s paintings are a mirror to her soul. One glimpse of her artwork and you get a sense of having known her a long time. So, when she climbs up the stairs to reach the Vadehra Art Gallery where “Nirmalya”, an exhibition of her recent works, is on display, there is no awkwardness of that first meeting, no stilted beginnings to conversations.
“Meditative”, “poetic” and “contemplative” are words that have been used to describe 75-year-old Ramachandran in the past, but the one that comes to my mind is: serene. Just like her paintings — devoid of violent hues and sharp, jagged lines — there is a calming fluidity about her. That tranquillity is reflected in each of her creations: be it in the austere, withdrawn beauty of her “Winter Landscapes” or in the diverse depictions of her favourite flower, the lotus, or else in the dark, mysterious hills set against the red sky.
Peonies, chrysanthemums, carnations, lilies, ferns — there are blooms all around the gallery, flawlessly depicted. And yet, it is not just the form that is captivating but also the story that each frame evokes. As art historian Ella Datta, the curator of the exhibition and an old acquaintance, says, “She has recorded minutely her sensitive response to natural objects and forms, at first with Chinese ink and brush and then with water colour.”
Datta says Ramachandran is perhaps the only artist in India who works with Chinese ink on paper, partly because of her unique lineage and also because it’s not an easy technique. “Chinese ink doesn’t flow evenly, so it’s difficult to achieve fluid brushstrokes with it,” she says. It also doesn’t allow for revisions — it can’t be rubbed or drawn over. “I end up wasting a lot of paper,” laughs Ramachandran.
To understand Ramachandran’s work fully, one needs to go back in time. Chameli was born as Tan Yuan to Professor Tan Yun-shan and Tan Chen Nai-wei. Her father, an eminent scholar and a close associate of Rabindranath Tagore, moved to India from China in 1928 to establish the Cheena Bhavan at Santinikaten as a centre for Chinese studies.
“Meditative”, “poetic” and “contemplative” are words that have been used to describe 75-year-old Ramachandran in the past, but the one that comes to my mind is: serene. Just like her paintings — devoid of violent hues and sharp, jagged lines — there is a calming fluidity about her. That tranquillity is reflected in each of her creations: be it in the austere, withdrawn beauty of her “Winter Landscapes” or in the diverse depictions of her favourite flower, the lotus, or else in the dark, mysterious hills set against the red sky.
Peonies, chrysanthemums, carnations, lilies, ferns — there are blooms all around the gallery, flawlessly depicted. And yet, it is not just the form that is captivating but also the story that each frame evokes. As art historian Ella Datta, the curator of the exhibition and an old acquaintance, says, “She has recorded minutely her sensitive response to natural objects and forms, at first with Chinese ink and brush and then with water colour.”
Datta says Ramachandran is perhaps the only artist in India who works with Chinese ink on paper, partly because of her unique lineage and also because it’s not an easy technique. “Chinese ink doesn’t flow evenly, so it’s difficult to achieve fluid brushstrokes with it,” she says. It also doesn’t allow for revisions — it can’t be rubbed or drawn over. “I end up wasting a lot of paper,” laughs Ramachandran.
To understand Ramachandran’s work fully, one needs to go back in time. Chameli was born as Tan Yuan to Professor Tan Yun-shan and Tan Chen Nai-wei. Her father, an eminent scholar and a close associate of Rabindranath Tagore, moved to India from China in 1928 to establish the Cheena Bhavan at Santinikaten as a centre for Chinese studies.
All through her life Ramachandran’s experiences were influenced and inspired by Tagore and her father, thus bringing together the essence of Indian and Chinese sensibilities in her work. Her romance with nature dates back to her formative years in Santiniketan where she sat in open-air classes in the shade of trees. “Celebrations like Vasantotsav, Varsha Mangal, Sharadotsav and special Vaitaliks to celebrate full moon nights brought our lives closer to nature,” says Ramachandran. “Closeness to nature is also an important feature of Chinese art and culture. My father would make us sit in the open verandah at our house after dinner to watch the sky. He wanted us to realise the vastness of the universe and expand our vision.”
Her father also made it a point to see that they learnt Chinese during vacations. He demonstrated the fine art of Chinese calligraphy using the pictograph form of the xiaozhuan script, being one of the last few scholars to practise it. “I loved watching each step — from the grinding of the ink to the final writing. The whole process was like meditation.” So, when she took up painting, using ink and brush came naturally to her. Visits by eminent Chinese artists like Xu Beihong and Yeh Chien Yu to Cheena Bhavan further exposed her to this medium.
As a young girl, Ramachandran recalls watching Baij working on his monumental sculpture, “The Mill Call”. “We could talk to him. He was always friendly, though a little eccentric,” she smiles. Once, during a visit to the Kala Bhavan, she saw Baij teaching students how to use water colour. He beckoned her and made her portrait with a few bold strokes. “I was only 10 years old and couldn’t appreciate his work. Years later, when I showed this work to my husband, A Ramachandran [the Padma Bhushan awardee known for his masterful depictions of myths in Kerala-style murals], he was elated that I possessed a great work of art by a master who could capture my likeness with only a few strokes,” says Ramachandran who moved to Delhi in 1964 after her husband got an offer to teach art at Jamia Millia Islamia.
Art historian and curator Yashodhara Dalmia likens Ramachandran’s technique and style to that of Georgia O’Keeffe, also known as the mother of American modernism. “Just like O’Keeffe, simply in the rendering of a flower, she is able to portray the experience of being a woman — her sexuality, isolation, beauty and strength.”
There has always been a play of light and shade in her paintings. No frame is static: a flower swaying gently in the breeze, skeletal branches wrapping themselves around a tree, a lotus slowly and steadily wilting away. When I say this to Ramachandran, she quips: “It’s nature, right? It’s living, not dead, so how can it be static.” Datta feels that more than stories, Ramachandran has focused on the abstraction of the flower forms, their design, weight, volume and the varying colour tonalities. “If any story emerges, it surfaces from the deep recesses of one’s mind and is left to the viewer to read it as he or she will,” she says.
Shalini Sawhney, owner of Mumbai-based art gallery, The Guild, has quite a few works by Ramachandran in her personal collection. “I love how she uses Chinese technique and washpaint to depict Indian flora and fauna,” she says.
Over the years, Ramachandran’s style has evolved tremendously. In an interview to Outlook in 2008, she said: “I am in my old age, but young in my work”. She had started painting only in the 1990s. “She met her husband at Kala Bhavan and got married in 1967, almost immediately after finishing college,” explains Datta. “Over the years she got busy with the house and the kids.”
Her earlier works were monochromatic but she later started using metallic hues and colour. “Earlier she used elements like coconut palms and rocks by the seashore. Now she is doing full-fledged landscapes like ‘Winter Landscapes’ and ‘Lake Placid’,” says Datta. While her enthusiasm to experiment is youthful, the perspective she brings to the work is mature.
Ramachandran’s heritage, coupled with the affordability of her works, has made her shows very popular with art buyers and collectors. “We end up selling 60-70 per cent of her paintings while the show is on, which is great for an artist,” says a representative of Vadehra Art Gallery. Most of her works are priced between Rs 45,000 and Rs 1,50,000.
The exhibition is on at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi till September 14
