Samir Mondal (1952) is an Indian watercolour painter. His most amazing contribution to Indian art of modern times is a continual revival of watercolour and one of the country's most talented and successful watercolour artists.
Mondal started his solo career in 1980, and after a brief stay in Bangalore, settled in Mumbai. Here by 1987, he was illustrating political cartoons in water colour for noted magazine Illustrated Weekly of India.
Over the past four decades he has exhibited in India and abroad. Besides this he has also participated in noted group exhibitions like National Art exhibition of Lalit Kala Akademi (Delhi), ‘Freedom of Expression’ and ‘Tribute to Mother Teresa’ by RPG Enterprises, 100 Years of Indian Cinema, People for Animals, ‘Art with a Heart’ at National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, ‘Celebrations-97’ at Napa Art Gallery, Nepal, ‘Confluence’ at Art Connoisseur Gallery, London and Gallery Asiana, New York in collaboration with Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore.
For the 2007 Hindi film, he painted two watercolour paintings which characters Ishaan and Nikumbh. In March 2012, to mark his 60th birthday, he held an exhibition titled "6x10" of his 60 paintings of flowers, at the Jamaat Art Gallery in Colaba, Mumbai.
His style of work has evolved, being influenced by events in his life since birth. During the early childhood in rural Bengal he played and experimented with natural pigments like ash, red clay, flower petals, leaves etc. Mixing such pigments with water, he made drawings and decorative patterns. Water and pigments have always been a part of him from the start. Later he moved to Kolkata to pursue higher studies in Government Art College. This was another big influence in the evolution of his style. Government Art College was a very British institute, so he was exposed to orthodox watercolour techniques of the British masters. The transparency and the magical three dimensional aspect of watercolour enthralled him as he began his student life. Landscapes, cityscapes open air study were the only subjects related to watercolour use. As he progressed through the years in college, he was exposed to Chinese watercolours with bold brush strokes, Egyptian hieroglyphics with simplified motifs, prehistoric cave paintings, frescoes from Ajanta Caves in India etc. These made him realise that in contemporary use of watercolour, it was still very much unexplored, not only in India but the world as a whole. He tried to experiment by incorporating bolder brush strokes, inspired by the Chinese; also by placing simplified motifs in a two dimensional plane
© 2018. All images are copyrighted © by Samir Mondal. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained.
Mondal started his solo career in 1980, and after a brief stay in Bangalore, settled in Mumbai. Here by 1987, he was illustrating political cartoons in water colour for noted magazine Illustrated Weekly of India.
Over the past four decades he has exhibited in India and abroad. Besides this he has also participated in noted group exhibitions like National Art exhibition of Lalit Kala Akademi (Delhi), ‘Freedom of Expression’ and ‘Tribute to Mother Teresa’ by RPG Enterprises, 100 Years of Indian Cinema, People for Animals, ‘Art with a Heart’ at National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, ‘Celebrations-97’ at Napa Art Gallery, Nepal, ‘Confluence’ at Art Connoisseur Gallery, London and Gallery Asiana, New York in collaboration with Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore.
For the 2007 Hindi film, he painted two watercolour paintings which characters Ishaan and Nikumbh. In March 2012, to mark his 60th birthday, he held an exhibition titled "6x10" of his 60 paintings of flowers, at the Jamaat Art Gallery in Colaba, Mumbai.
His style of work has evolved, being influenced by events in his life since birth. During the early childhood in rural Bengal he played and experimented with natural pigments like ash, red clay, flower petals, leaves etc. Mixing such pigments with water, he made drawings and decorative patterns. Water and pigments have always been a part of him from the start. Later he moved to Kolkata to pursue higher studies in Government Art College. This was another big influence in the evolution of his style. Government Art College was a very British institute, so he was exposed to orthodox watercolour techniques of the British masters. The transparency and the magical three dimensional aspect of watercolour enthralled him as he began his student life. Landscapes, cityscapes open air study were the only subjects related to watercolour use. As he progressed through the years in college, he was exposed to Chinese watercolours with bold brush strokes, Egyptian hieroglyphics with simplified motifs, prehistoric cave paintings, frescoes from Ajanta Caves in India etc. These made him realise that in contemporary use of watercolour, it was still very much unexplored, not only in India but the world as a whole. He tried to experiment by incorporating bolder brush strokes, inspired by the Chinese; also by placing simplified motifs in a two dimensional plane
© 2018. All images are copyrighted © by Samir Mondal. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained.
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| Mr Samir Mondal |
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