Recipient of the fourth highest civilian order, Padma shri, Paresh Maity is a prolific
painter having participated in 81 solo exhibitions in his 40-year long career. He has
painted the longest painting in India that stretches up-to 850 feet. He has often been
referred to as the ‘William Turner of India’.
Nature has always been a part of his psyche and surrounding and has found its due
place in his paintings in its myriad forms.
He is the master of water colour with an ability to interpret light in terms of pure colours.
‘Capturing the moment’ is what he laid stress on and chooses to work directly from
nature- on the spot.
“If you paint directly from nature, what you have is a direct transformation”, he says.
“You can capture the moment, the emotion, the feeling, the light.”
He has progressed from an early realism to a moody expressionistic and atmospheric
style and his oil paintings in bold colours lent a graphic quality to his paintings. And
gradually the atmospheric scenery gave in to representations of the human forms.
Unlike others he did not use pencil, pen and ink instead he used the colour directly
with the brush to indicate tonal contrasts along with the distinctiveness of applying the
highlights as well as the darker tonalities. A very skilled artist with a versatile palette
and treatment of colour and texture, Paresh Maity’s works are poetry in colours.
PARESH MAITY
Recipient of the fourth highest civilian order, Padma shri, Paresh Maity is a prolific painter having participated in 81 solo exhibitions in his 40-year long career. He has painted the longest painting in India that stretches up-to 850 feet. He has often been referred to as the ‘William Turner of India’. Nature has always been a part of his psyche and surrounding and has found its due place in his paintings in its myriad forms. He is the master of water colour with an ability to interpret light in terms of pure colours. ‘Capturing the moment’ is what he laid stress on and chooses to work directly from nature- on the spot. “If you paint directly from nature, what you have is a direct transformation”, he says. “You can capture the moment, the emotion, the feeling, the light.” He has progressed from an early realism to a moody expressionistic and atmospheric style and his oil paintings in bold colours lent a graphic quality to his paintings. And gradually the atmospheric scenery gave in to representations of the human forms. Unlike others he did not use pencil, pen and ink instead he used the colour directly with the brush to indicate tonal contrasts along with the distinctiveness of applying the highlights as well as the darker tonalities. A very skilled artist with a versatile palette and treatment of colour and texture, Paresh Maity’s works are poetry in colours.