261 women artists paint their thoughts (March 8 is International Women\’s Day)

NEW DELHI - Spirituality, women\’s bonding, landscapes, coloured abstractions, shapes and figures - 261 artists from all over the world have put their thoughts on 300 canvases in one of the biggest women\’s art exhibitions at the Art Mall here.

The exhibition titled \”Stree\”, which began three years ago as an annual event, is a tribute to talented women artists who have either taken up art as a vocation or hobby, said Ila Jain, director of the mall, who manages the mammoth display space-cum-learning centre. The 10-day exhibition began March 8.

\”One of the main objectives of the festival is to also take the artists to buyers and sell affordable art. The small canvases are priced at Rs.15,000 without discounts. The most expensive is Rs.500,000. We offer attractive discounts so that the average art lover - especially women - can walk in to buy art on their own without having to borrow from home,\” Jain told IANS.

The focus this year is on themes and techniques. Boston-based Pragya Jain, who has been exhibiting her art in India since 2005, has played with textures, shapes and ballerinas in her acrylic composition \”Play of Light\”.

\”My art is woven around name, place, animal and thing. I play with circles. For me, every circle tells a story. I am working on a new series, \’Mat and Metallic\’ in which I blend mat and metallic shades with silhouettes of ballerinas. The figures are camouflaged,\” the artist, who exhibited solo in Bangalore\’s UB City last month, told IANS from Boston.

Mathura-based artist Uma Sharma, who makes painted landscape collages, has brought slices of spirituality from \”the banks of the Yamuna\” in the temple town to life with scraps of old magazines and newspapers.

Her composition Geeta Mandir - a 30 X 24 inch collage - resembles acrylic landscapes on canvas for its details, clarity of lines and blend of colours.

\”I am a self-taught artist and the style is my own. The Mathura series, made of old newspapers and magazines piled at home, is my trademark. I colour the scraps of paper before pasting them on the canvas,\” Sharma told IANS from Mathura.

An Ajmer-based NGO Aakar helped Sharma exhibit for the first time in Jaipur. \”I had no idea how to take my collages to people before Aakar showed me the way,\” Sharma said.

She is working on a large format collage of holy cities and rivers in India.

An abstract untitled composition by Delhi-based artist Nupur Kundu stands out for its \”vivid colour play\”.

\”My art is an extension of my Kathak dance. But art empowers me more than my dance,\” the artist told IANS. Kundu, who has been exhibiting for 12 years, is preparing for an exhibition in Munich this year.

According to Jain, putting together an art exhibition of 261 artists is difficult. \”We lose money but the satisfaction of doing this for the scores of talented women artists in India makes up for the