Artist Sanam Narayanan is at a loss to explain the source of inspiration for his 6x4-foot untitled work on show at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery in Kochi.
The detailed painting, which appears to have a textured surface, is of a landscape with a green dwelling at its heart. Amidst a vast expanse of brown stands a building surrounded by lush foliage. A combination of watercolour, soft pastel, and gouache on rice paper, the work, the artist says, “must be a memory of a field” he once saw in Kolkata.
“It is often not possible to pinpoint the origin of an idea. The complete work takes shape from the sketches that precede it,” says Sanam, who also has on show a collection of his sketches.
