By PRIYA MENON

Photos by MOHD SAHAR MISNI 

THE Hindu deity Ganesha, is often depicted as a traditional masterpiece but one Indian artist from Chennai decided to portray the popular Ganesha in abstract works of art. 

"These pieces displayed today are contemporary pieces of a revered god, which you can hang on the wall and not have people stop and pray," said Geetha K, 38, the director of Broken Tusk Gallery. 

Unique: The Doctor Ganesha serigraph based artwork.

The paintings were showcased last Saturday at the Gloal Indian International School by the Broken tusk Gallery in their debut exhibition.  

"When we set eyes on each of those pieces we were truly confident that our exhibition would be successful," said Geetha. 

The artist AP Sreethar, 39, who specialises in sketches, is fond of a digital artwork called Giclee, (pronounced as Zhee-clay) that is prominent in his work. 

"Since it is digital work we can bring down a zero or two on the price," said Geetha. 

"It makes the paintings an affordable luxury." 

Different: Kushi Ganpath depicts nine musically-inclined Ganeshas.

Since Sreethar is a sketch artist he is able to transfer his ideas directly into the computer and which is printed on canvas. Later he perfects the strokes and colours by working over the printed digital work. 

"The Giclee pieces are easy to manipulate, reproduce and to custom design for people,' said Geetha. 

Impressive: The Bala Ganapathy is a sketch of 32 Ganesha incarnations, placed intertwined and supporting each other all the way around, within a frontal image of an elephant. It is a serigraph mixed medium work.

"Personally I find it affordable and people need not shy away from good piece of work because of its price," she added. 

The artist's creativity stands out in many pieces but one particular piece called the Abstract Ganesha is where Sreethar has imaginatively created the elephant-god Ganesha with a rainbow of colours. 

"When I asked him what inspired him to create a piece like that, he asked me, what would it look like if a child spilled ice cream in a splash of colours?" 

That was the base for his inspiration, a simple day-to-day luxury taken for granted like ice cream. 

Besides using Giclee, another method called the Serigraphy is also seen in the works of art. 

Serigaph is a print that uses the silk-screen process. The sketched images of Lord Ganesha are created directly on the screen using a stencil to form the image and to block the areas where paint is not needed. Water-based or oil-based paint is squeezed or brushed through the screen, creating the image on the paper below. 

It is not everyday we see Lord Ganesha all dressed up in a doctor's attire to tend to patients but Sreethar has painted a perfect picture of the respected profession. 

"This serigraph painting is to represent Lord Ganesha in our everyday life and is just a choice from a repertoire of professions," said Geetha.