This 40th year of Artweeks finds me exhibiting with 14 other artists in our KFL pop-up gallery. My partner and I built this structure some time ago for holding exhibitions and I believe that it has great light to show off the various art works.
My paintings, all oil on canvas, have been unashamedly chosen to show off my favourites of colour, theme and those that are close to my heart. They alter the temperature or the mood in a room, or both. Hope you will enjoy.
'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 and a published writer. He was born in India, the land, its spices, its colours and vibrancy of life, all evident in the way Kamal paints. 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.
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.
Inspiration for him comes from about any source as long as the subject has resonance for him. He is driven, by some inner turmoil or goal, or the childhood memory of his severe asthma, and now that he is over it, it reminds him 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 experiences of the diners with the warmth of colours surrounding them.
His future as an artist seems to be only partly in his hands, the rest as he says ‘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.