More Pictures of Druvinka’s Paintings

Beneath Beyond

For Druvinka, painting is her life. She thinks about it constantly, is obsessed by it. She is one of our more exemplary and exciting artists working today. She lives for art, absorbs it, is consumed by it.

In my opinion, it’s this very obsession that sets her apart from her contemporaries. She has created her life so she can paint to live. It’s a forgone conclusion. Her themes continue to evoke the spiritual and the BIG questions in life. The paintings are abstract, part narrative and represent philosophical notions. It’s this paradox that Druvinka continues to touch on, a continuation of what she has been painting for the last four years using the most basic of symbols – the lingam and the yoni – to represent her ideas. What are beneath are our most basic selves? Our fears, our hopes, darkness, and dreams. What are beyond are space and the universe, god and heaven. How does one marry the two? Is it about Balance? Choosing the middle path? So our needs equal our desires? We struggle with this. Strive to find our equilibrium, our balance. But, it’s almost impossible for us mere mortals to realise this yearning for peace and spiritual fulfilment- its difficult to attain.
In fact, I would presume that once one finds that eternal balance the obsession to make art might altogether disappear. We have found meaning, so we cease to live, cease to create, cease to be. So as these forms and themes emerge in her paintings, it’s the process that is of utmost importance to Druvinka and gives her the most satisfaction. This tempering of paints onto the canvas applying the mixture into the given surface makes for many layers of colour- She tempers and soaks pigment to get the shade she searches for, and for that grail, she works applying layers of paint. Druvinka has mastered this difficult technique using the process; she is quick to apply the paint and thereby demonstrates her skill. She will use three colours if she has to, in fact, she will use whatever colours are available to create her painting. She likes the tempera process because it suits her nature. She is able to express herself with this technique: watery, free flowing, fluid, She works perfunctorily once the image is down on canvas. She might take a month to put the paint on the canvas, walking by it’s stretched presence day in day out, however once paint is applied and the form is in place she is quick. When she paints it’s solely for her. Once completed, she let’s go, has no attachment to the painting-already thinking of her next canvas what will surface next?

Like the globe in her paintings representing the Mandela of life: In some paintings it’s whole and can be seen, In other’s it’s half hidden, rising-this search for unity and wholeness- just like existence itself, life’s ups and downs, joys and heartaches: this is Druvinka’s search at present. But thank god for this eternal quest, because in essence it’s our primal driving force. Let the paradox be. Let live. It’s the act of creating that is important; illumination can wait.