Revelling in portraits

The Blue Horizon, oil on canvas

In his latest solo exhibit at Shilpangan, Ranjit Das has brought in portraits with a different angle. He has stressed on simplicity and frequently left a lot to the imagination. In the delineation of the rickshaw-puller he has repeated the image of a rickshaw-puller in print done in a rhythmic way on canvas. The background is burnt sienna, pink and yellow with slashes of Indian red. In mother and child, there is the gray and blue of the wide expanse of the sky at the back, with bits of rectangles and swirls. InCollecting flowersa woman bends over to pick something from the field in front. She is done in sweeps of white with a backdrop of vermilion.

The beauty of an old, seated tribal woman is brought in another canvas, as she looks out at the world and puffs a cigar. Her face is in details but her clothes are sketched in. The back is in pink, white and gray. Fancy dream with a cross presents the portrait of a contemplating woman and she is done in brown and burnt sienna. There is a square in front of her, depicting a window at which she stands and dreams.

Ranjit's frequent trips to the hill tracts bring in a young woman from Mymensingh. Here the body is simply suggested and even the head is left to the imagination. This is in sweeps of yellow and white. The sky is brought in blurs of pink and white. In Shy aware one comes across another female figure done shades of brown, burnt sienna and white. This too is lyrical.

There is also a sketch of a woman with flying hair and she is done in sweeps of brown, black and white. A tiny moon is brought in the background. Another painting depicts a woman pulling a thorn from her foot. The right side is done in detailed sketches while the left one is simply suggested. A small peeping child is brought in the backdrop. A moon is brought to the left. There is too a depiction of a woman gazing out of a window in a pensive way. She is done in white, black and red.

Ranjit has been painting for 30 years with changes in colour, subject and composition in his work. In his paintings the artist tries to bring in the joys and tears of everyday human existence, and this time, he has stressed on figure work in particular. Earlier, he has done a lot of abstractions compositions, using squares upon squares. He works in his studio at home, as the mood takes him. He does not, however, work late into the night. Sometimes he works on eight or ten canvases; all at one go, taking two months to complete his work.

He has stages in his painting. Sometimes he uses collages and sometimes he strips his canvas to maintain the colour at the back. He builds up his lines and textures in various ways. He uses mixed media and print, as the feeling takes him.

Zainul Abedin and Shahabuddin have fascinated him in figure work. In abstraction it has been Mohammad Kibria and Monirul Islam. Among Indian painters he greatly admires KG Subramaniam and Sunil Das. Ranjit did his masters from Vadodara and teaches art at the Teachers' Training College.