The art of capturing music on canvas

Calling her ongoing show — Rhythms and Harmony — a “home coming”, artist Sandhya Singh brings out a rich sampling of her recent works that portray music and rhythms.

Her works seem to blend music and art in a seamlessly unique way and are clearly inspired from the serenity in nature on one hand and the captivating power of music on the other.

She says, “As years passed by, all time greats, like Ustaad Bismillah Khan, Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Pt Ravi Shankar and others, only helped my art take a distinct form with unique grammar and syntax — capturing the harmony and rhythms of music on canvas.”

In her recent works, the rhythms of music take circular, wavy forms. It starts with a central theme, gradually moving away from the centre by way of elaborating and expanding, and coming back to just going away again, elaborating and expanding it slightly differently this time. Her characteristic soft, gradual merging of textures is the harmony one experiences in music, and the colours and hues are the notes and the timing.

Sandhya has been dabbling in art for nearly 40 years now, and has displayed her works, and won spontaneous accolades at a number of national and international centres, including Delhi, Lucknow, Bombay, Kolkata, Dehradun, Jamnagar, San Diego, Houston, Cairo and Dhaka. Her next show is set to open in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in the next few weeks.

Talking about her association with Mumbai, Sandhya says, “I spent several memorable years in the metropolis. Therefore, my works too have imbibed the spirit of Mumbaikars and the essentially unique flavours of Mumbai — the serene music, the evening breeze whistling past the tree lines, rhythmic waves washing ashore, and the never say die, positive attitude.”