Kamal Lathar WOA – portfolio

Contact the artist

http://kdlathar.com/index.php
07976 946331
kdlwriter[at]gmail.com

Exhibition information

Kamal D Lathar

Artist & Author

      

‘Draw a story in lines, plot its progress in oils,
and bring the conflict to a head with brush strokes.’

 

Kamal is a self-taught artist born in India, the land, its spices, its colours and vibrancy of life, all evident in the way he paints, without fear or boundaries; as he is always saying, ‘you can’t paint well until you’ve ruined a few canvases, and I’ve ruined a few.’

He decided very early as an artist that he would mainly paint with oils, as he considered them the most vibrant and challenging of the mediums. If there was something he was going to try to master first, it would be the oils.

The paintings usually weave around a story, something deeper inside his soul, something dying to get out, and ‘something that will have a dialogue with your mind at the same time your eyes are having one with the layers.’

He considers art to be a very personal journey, an emotive one, where the dialogue cannot be infused into the soul of another, but where the observer is moved internally by a physical image, a shift in perspective by the interaction, akin to having the right seasoning in food, before the flavour can think of rising from the bland to the sublime.

His other canvas is his writing. In ‘The Changeling Saga’ he is exploring the whole cosmos, universe, death, afterlife all wrapped up in a fantasy thriller. Book III was coming along until it got hijacked by time and a book called ‘Donkey’, a story of an Indian boy whose parents want to marry him off to a fabulously wealthy girl whose only activity seems to be eating. Naturally he has other ideas. You can find more details about these books and future developments on Kamal’s website.

Inspiration for both his art and his writing comes from just about any source as long as the subject has resonance for him. He is driven by some inner turmoil or goal, or perhaps a childhood memory of his severe asthma that at one stage would not let him get out of bed. Now that he is over it, he says that ‘it reminds me how good it is to be breathing, to have a heartbeat, a pulse, a life.’

His art can be found in numerous places in the UK with the occasional works in Europe. There is a permanent display of his works at the Spice Lounge, an Indian restaurant in Oxford, where every alcove features one of his paintings, trying to enrich the experience of the diners with the warmth of the colours surrounding them.

Kamal’s future as an artist seems to be only partly in his hands, the rest ‘is a combination of right place, right time and a smidgen of luck, something that we all need.’

Love his art, hate his art, he wouldn’t want you to be indifferent to it.

 

More examples of his work can be found on www.kdlathar.com. Apologies, the website is not quite current and will be updated soon.