‘I find the monsoon poetic’

Prashant Prabhu is a self- taught artist from Mumbai who has been painting for the last 15 years. However, he feels his earlier works were a reflection of a newcomer trying to find his ground. “My last five or six exhibitions were more serious efforts and are the ones I am really proud of,” he says.

Prabhu has had 16 solo shows till date, of various themes such as restaurants in Mumbai, Mahatma Gandhi, musical worlds, landscapes of Bhutan and Zen philosophy. “Music, photography and meditation are my passions, besides painting,” he says, adding, “I  always  listen to music while I paint and the kind of music varies according to the theme of my painting.” He tries to co-relate music and art, however, he confesses, “I have no knowledge of the nuances of music.”

For his current exhibition titled Anand Malhar, Prabhu played a variety of malhar sounds as background music while he painted. “Malhar is a raga that is sung only during the rains and while painting this series I listened to more than 10 types of malhar including —Miyan Malhar, Gaud Malhar, Ramdasi Malhar, Sur Malhar and Nanak  Malhar, to name a few.”

So what was the inspiration behind these paintings? “I love walking in the rains, especially in hill stations. The locales of Matheran, Mahableshwar, Cherapunjee, Kaziranga and Tawang are the inspiration.” All the paintings are water colours, not only in this series but his previous works as well. “I am a very hyper and impulsive person. I do not have the patience with mediums such as oil paintings and installations as they require a lot of time. When I have an idea, I have this urgent need to transform it on to paper and this is best achieved by water colours.”