Trees in an earth song

Prasad KP’s Earth Songs at Palette Art Gallery

Prasad KP’s earth songs of nature and the landscape at Palette Art Gallery plays?like a medley of sonatas that peal out and ask us to listen to the rhythms of the earth. Born in the Palakkad District of Kerala ,a Masters of Painting MS University Baroda, Prasad unravels?a stellar set of Neo impressionist?landscapes that at once create a confluence of the past and the present.

Nature’s immortal notes

A closer look positions the landscapes as studies of botanical brilliance as well as a love for its immortal notes . Prasad has worked as an assistant to artist Nilima Sheikh in executing the works at Mumbai’s airport and has a very fine understanding of miniature painting. In this suite of works entitled Pastoral Eulogy his works range from a series of verdant vignettes to a series of surreal statements under the tenors of the setting sun.?

Twilight ferryman

In more ways than one Prasad is a twilight ferryman who studies landscapes of his native land and light conditions to create works that extol the poetic cadences of Kerala’s famous poets like Vallathol and Akkitham Namboothiri. Rooted in Eastern painting traditions such as miniature painting and oral traditions found in vernacular folk songs in Kerala and its vernacular literature Prasad creates this body out of the communion of history, memory and experience. Through his own life experiences, and his love for philosophy he?creates these landscapes?that evoke the confluence of the?imaginary as well as the realistic to address a host of seasons and atmospherics in the lush tropicana of Kerala’s topographical beauty.

Watercolour as a medium and material?

On canvas his process of creating this lush series with watercolour is a long arduous odyssey that brings in the singular technique of the bristle dotted stroke that impressionist masters of yore invented. “ I use many layers so that I can get the desired effect but I cannot say when I know a work is finished ,” says Prasad. “ The brushes themselves are a interments of purpose and finality and the more I work the more I know that I seek a certain mood and reverie which I cannot explain.”

Inspired by reading poetry and prose and the famous Kerala Kathas the Prasad is interested in the connection between stories and realistic images, as well as?age-old connections from the landscape that stands testimony to time.He adopts traditional painting techniques to create these landscapes that are rich and replete with a verdant tableau of thick blanket of bushes and trees and the red tinged gravel and clay soil of Kerala’s Palakkad district.

You need a magnifying glass to find figures in his landscape, these are humans, dogs, even birds that add to the narrative dimension in his practice.In his won way he delves into the history of Purusha Prakriti as he brings together the past and the present. “ My visual language is born of my observation as well as childhood memories,”he says. “ In the landscapes I create you will find the rhythms of the mazhyakalam (monsoon) as well as the histories of the existence of the region. My attempt in my work is to express the complexities of life and the living. I believe there is a deep and vital connection between man and nature and this is what I witness.

Realism and surrealism

??The landscapes belong to two distinct categories.There are landscapes that mirror crisp moss green forests and there are some that are surreal in quality of tones of sunlight that sheathe its splendour. The sun kissed blush toned surreal works have a surreal signature that goes beyond merely seeing.It awakens a litany of echoes within of songs and poetics of the earth. Instantly you know that Prasad is a keen rasik ( celebrant ) of the setting shades of the sun that are born of a prism of refractive indices. The shafts of these residual rays become the tones and tenors of these surreal tints.?

These landscapes portray trees as penetrating preachers and objects of mystical auras.We look at them and know that many generations have revered them through generations of tribes and families and forests.The world lives in its roots of infinity, and their leaves rustle in the wind and breeze as they thrive and throb in the inner recesses of nature’s needs.These landscapes have been created with the signature of contemplation and concentration.You have to witness them in the silence of the gallery and know that nothing is more beautiful than a lush strong forest that stands as a miracle in this millennium.Prasad in a gentle manner fuses the language of realism, surrealism and impressionism into a choreography of chants that celebrate the pastoral.

Many realms of thought flash by the inner eye, but this?show of landscapes brought back the words of the great author and philosopher Hermann Hesse when he wrote:?

‘ Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.’ This is a debut of fascinating insights and imagery caught in the hourglass of time.