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A Brush with India Canadian artist, Vera de Jong has lived in India long enough to not only call it her home but also internalise her myriad experiences and express them in a thoroughly captivating splash of colour SEVENTEEN years ago, Canadian Vera de Jong came to India and with her husband George Penner, who spent his childhood here, she settled in Hyderabad. George started a website company and she rented studio space and devoted herself to painting full time. On August 2 her second solo show will open at Artworld – Sarala’s Art Centre, Chennai. “In those days Hyderabad was a quiet town. Well, for a town of 8 million, of course,” says Vera with a smile. She studied Telugu and learnt her way around the city, got to know other painters and the few galleries that existed at the time. She began to participate in group shows and eventually Hyderabad’s Daira Gallery hosted her first solo show. “I fell in love with India when I arrived,” she says. “So much about being here moved and challenged me. Its energy and contrasts fascinated me. The heat and colour and intensity were something I’d never experienced before. India has changed so much in the last decade and a half – I tell people I’ve been here long enough to remember the good old days,” she laughs. “But back then it was an important epiphany to realise that this country was utterly itself, and that it was me who would have to change. Instead of wanting it to be different than it was, I adjusted myself to meet and accept it. Painting was a
way of processing that experience, of coming to terms with the frustrations and hard edges of this country, but also its beauty and sudden gifts,” she adds. Vera works in acrylics. Her paintings are highly textured, ‘abstract’ but with figurative references. Many are multi-panel pieces. She spent five years in Japan before coming to India, but while still living in Canada she studied carpentry. When, six years ago, she and George moved to Kodaikanal, far from anyone who would stretch canvases or frame her pieces, she began to incorporate all these aspects into her work. Evolving into a style that is all her own, she now builds her supports from canvas stretched over thin ply, and builds a frame which becomes a permanent part of the painting, sourcing all her materials from the wood shop in town and an art supply store in Madurai. The finished painting embodies for her some aspect of how the world seems, something that feels true despite geography or the group to which one belongs, some commonality of experience. “What we share as humans is so much more important than what separates us,” she says, “If you really watch and listen and forget yourself a little that becomes so clear.”
Vera de Jong’s paintings will be exhibited from August 2 to 18 at Artworld – Sarala’s Art Centre, 1/12 Ganeshpuram 3rd Street, Chennai. (http://artworldindia.com/). Exhibition opening is between 1830h and 2030h, Friday, August 2. 46
culturama | JULY 2013