I am grateful to Mahesh Baishya for letting me enjoy
three of his paintings. They are very beautifully
made!
The object of a symbolist painting, especially in the
Postmodernist types, is to convey a unified feeling to
the viewer and the success of the painter is
proportional to the degree to which he can convey his
own feeling.
The antagonists in all the three paintings are the
colors red and blue chasing each other all over the
canvas. In the first painting, the light coat of brown
towards the top right lets the black color seep
through giving the painting an almost translucent
character. Like in the other two paintings, even in
this one, the primary focus of the painting lies in
the diagonal (from top left to lower right) spread of
the red color. In color psychology, the color RED
suggests aggression, danger, unrest, passion etc. and
the Yellow spots highlight the red area. But this red
and yellow is countered by blotches of sharp blue at
bottom left giving a sharp heat and cold feeling to
the painting. From the angle of balance, I guess, this
first painting (War) is the most well balanced
painting of all three: both in terms of mechanical
balance and color balance. From the viewpoint of
mechanical balance, the big spread of brown and black
towards top-right is balanced by the strategic blue
area towards the left edge of the canvas. (Objects in
painting gain more "weight" as they move away from the
center; and so a smaller object diagonally opposite
towards the edge can balance a big object nearer the
center). Also in color balance, RED is considered to
be a cramped color, i.e., it makes the area of the
painting look smaller; but in contrast blue is a cool
color and visually expands the area it covers. So the
small areas of blue counter the large areas of red
very beautifully. The small dark lines moving upwards
does two things: they give continuity to the painting
by setting a motif and they give a sense of movement
from the cool blue, through the hot red, to the upper
realm of dull white and brown.
The second (Nature's Fury) painting gives very little
sense of motion. It is rather like a snapshot; and
since the blue spots are nearer the center while the
position of the red diagonal is almost unmoved, the
blue spots lose their potency and the unbalanced red
conveys an intense sense of heat and raw power. The
heat is accentuated by the absence of two things that
balance the heat/passion in the first painting
(namely, the dull area towards the top right and the
little white image toward the top and almost at the
center). But still the vertical spots of black give it
a continuous motif.
The last painting (Tranquility) is the opposite of the
second in terms of feeling. It gives a sense of
stability, the peacefulness of white and blue almost
choking the aggressiveness of red. Even though this
painting has the same red vertical moving lines (which
sets the motif for the first painting), the motif in
this painting is established rather by the
crisscrossing little white lines which permeate the
whole painting with an innocent, clean and cold
atmosphere. The red lines still move upward vehemently
but are totally overpowered by the coolness of the
heavy blue and white areas. The brown areas visually
divide the painting into 1/3rd and 2/3rds from top to
bottom, and the almost-absence of any psychologically
hot colors towards the top 1/3rd gives the feeling
that the red flames are about to be covered up with a
blanket of unstoppable white. This painting has two
diagonals of red meeting right where there is a big
globe of black. The position of the black spot at the
meeting point of the major and the minor diagonals
makes it very prominent to the viewer. The color black
is used in Symbolism to denote the social evils.
A strong diagonal is the mark of very good
Neo-classicist painting and your first two paintings
have a strong left-top to right bottom diagonal while
the third one had a major and a minor diagonal which
gives a classical verve and balance to the paintings
even though they are painted with a postmodernist
mentality.
I believe these three painting will make a very good
trio; but the second painting will fit better in the
first spot. It is for two reasons. Firstly, the second
painting has the dominance of red (the heat); the
first has a perfect balance of red and blue while the
third has the undisputed supremacy of white and blue
(cold). Again, the second painting is without any
movement while the first is with a little movement.
The third painting has a desperate movement, which is
virtually choked by white.
I don't know what was in the painter's mind but the
three paintings in the new order will denote the
gradual mastery of the cold colors over the hot
colors, the choking of the motion of red by the
peacefulness of white and blue: the mastery of the
cold feelings of innocence and peace over those of
restlessness and passion.
-- Reviewed by Syamanta Saikia.
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