New Delhi:
For US-based surgeon turned painter Shivdev Singh, memories of a Punjab he left behind over 40 years ago find expression in art - a mix of oils, charcoal sketches and watercolours - evocative of vibrant folk traditions of the north Indian state.
A bride bedecked in finery and her grandmother's ornate gold jewellery, a group of buffaloes being bathed in a river, a Punjabi lass twirling her Phulkari dress against a backdrop of lush yellow green mustard fields besides other snapshots from daily folk life of rural Punjab are among 20 oil works Mr Singh has brought with him for a solo exhibition in Delhi.
Curated by eminent art historian Alka Pande, the show is scheduled to begin at the Visual Arts Gallery in Delhi from September 17. A book by the same title, of images of paintings along with descriptive text, is also lined up for a launch on the occasion.
"My father was a surgeon in the Indian army and I wanted to be like him, but I had always doodled and sketched right from my childhood," says 79-year-old Singh, who studied medicine at Government Medical College, Patiala.
"In fact, even as a medical student, I continued to sketch." Many of the sketches of long bones in the Anatomy Museum at Medical College, Patiala have been done by Mr Singh.
Mr Singh continued to paint all through his medical career but concedes that being a full time pediatric surgeon and an artist wasn't easy.
"After a long thought, I retired from surgery to pursue art full time and spent four years in the College Arts department at Lancaster, California. I subsequently trained at Art Institute of California and painted live models," he says.
Starting off with watercolours, Mr Singh held his first exhibition in California in 1997 with a series of 100 works of US landscapes. Subsequently he has exhibited twice in India, once in Chandigarh in 2000 followed by Delhi in 2009.
The title of his upcoming show "Beyond The Village Pond: Cultural Reflections of Punjab" reveals Mr Singh's nostalgia for the past.
"The village scenes, ponds, museums, pre-wedding rituals, images of a bride dressed up, all to me represent a Punjab gone by. Life was simple back then and village was a self-sufficient unit with everything available to fulfill every need. The food that we ate was fulfilling and balanced with nutrition and locally available produce," says Mr Singh.
Traditional events like Giddha, Jaago(a symbolic pre-wedding dance), wrestling matches and village fair are brought to life in Mr Singh's colourful and skillful depiction of the Punjabi way of life.