Rakhee Roy

                    In the artist’s own words

 

My high pillared stupendous ancestral house in North Kolkata where I had spent my initial years was situated on a road which was named after my great grandfather Sri Mohesh Chandra Nayaratna. He had been the principal of Sanskrit College, CIE and received the title of Mohamohapadya. His eldest son Sri Monmothonath Bhattacharjee was first Indian accountant general and a great friend of Swami Vivekananda. Sri Mohesh Chandra’s youngest son Sri Mohimanath Bhattacharjee was an Ishan Scholar (ICS) District Magistrate and a Collector.

 

I mention these personalities because they were framed in oil canvases that hung with pride in the corridor and staircase of our house, which created a great impression on my tender years. Their eyes and postures instilled or stirred my artistic sensibility perhaps right from those days.

 

 I spent my formal student life on the wheels; moving from one place to other due to my father’s professional compulsion. Perhaps, this helped me in having the perspective and insight of varied culture and diversities of life.

 

Painting had been my passion from early on while studying in Pratt Memorial, Kolkata.

 

Thereafter we moved to Vishakhapatnam where I majored in Psychology from St. Joseph. After graduation I turned towards Fine Arts. I studied the human form, pursued model sketching for five years  and had my work exhibited in a number of places. From realistic to fantasy, my artistic philosophy has centered around the environment.  Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth on the issue of global warming had moved me. My first solo exhibition at Birla  Academy (Kolkata) 2010 dwelled on that theme.

Nature, humans and other forms of lives around them have been an obsession. The entwining of these has been so intriguing that I continue to replete my canvases with them. Destruction of nature, erosion of the environment pains me and I feel responsible to offer a humble protest against such acts.

The theme of my paintings in this assortment is thus titled “In Quest of Green”.

I have travelled to China, Europe and East Asia to understand and absorb the heritage art of these places.

                “Through nature the divine speaks to us

                 If only we care to listen….

                 The green is making way

                 For so called development…

                 Its continuous scuffle between

                 Knowledge and Wisdom.”

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