Artist Erina Tamrakar has come up with her second solo painting exhibition of the year, which clearly depicts the metamorphosis her imagery and motifs are going through when seen on the backdrop of her previous works.

Titled “Silhouettes in Time”, the paintings of the talented young artist put up for display at the Siddhartha Art Gallery in Babarmahal Revisited in the capital from May 13 seems to be a gradual evolvement from her 2007 exhibition titled “Mirror of Woman”.

Curvaceous, very sensuous female form can be seen highlighted in most of the paintings on display: sometimes alone in the woods or against crumbling ruins, sometimes going about her business with an umbrella, and with her lover among flowers and falling leaves.

In the words of Sangeeta Thapa, art curator/director of Siddhartha Gallery who regularly writes on Nepali art, the recurring motif in Erina’s paintings are rapturous women revealing their sensuality in discreet isolation or the joy of motherhood. She says this marks a clear departure from her earlier recurring imagery — dejected rural women who suffered under the load of their daily chores

“Nature plays an important role in these paintings. Flowers, leaves and vines are used to connect the past with the present and to root the female form in nature,” says Thapa in her introduction to the artist work, “Erina’s flowers represents the beauty, vulnerability and lingering fragrance of a woman.”

Talking about her paintings on display, Erina says, “In some of my paintings I have tried to capture the mood of people from different walks of life. I have used the umbrella as a simple motif to portray many different emotions.”

According to her, the umbrella in her paintings not only serves as a symbol of feminine character, but is also linked to a host of situations that make it a powerful metaphor of life. She thinks umbrellas are not only things to protect you from rain or shine, but according to the poem she has written on her paintings, can also be “An umbrella of the oppressed/ An umbrella of the happy/ A damaged umbrella, A broken umbrella/ An umbrella of no ‘use’/ A shade for the beggars and for tears.,/an umbrella for the poor/ An umbrella of love/ Life’s umbrella/ We live with the umbrella/ The umbrella of all the shadows of the other umbrellas/ and the umbrella of all the shadow people.

Paintings on display are all based on acrylic and their price ranges from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000. The exhibition will run all through May. nepalnews.com ag May 14 08