Fascination with colours

@lijucherianoman -

The plants at Al Jabal Al Akhdar fascinate her. She looks forward to painting a series of flora focusing on sustainability and inspirational art and also a series on Omani silverware.

For a long time, Oman resident artist Bubbly Choudhry, her artistic journey has been a busy run working at her art each day. For her, the landscape in Oman appears to be a blank canvas, inviting every artist to splash ideas, emotions, colour and communication.

An Indian artist with a rich history of art, Bubbly (officially called Sudipta Choudhry) communicates at an emotional and elemental level.

Famous Indian artist, the late M F Husain and renowned Paris-based curator Pascal Odille had hailed her presentation of the Sultanate ‘as a country she loved.’

“The wealth of colours feed my soul very strongly and I am thankful for this enduring quality. This chromatic search has influenced the gradual change from representational to abstract paintings that I make,” she says.

Bubbly admits aspects of movement and thought helped her evolve with commitment and discipline. “Creative pursuits take time to reach their apex. The above attributes helped me to move on with my pursuits since good work is never created by indecision,” she explains.

For her, creating a painting she truly loved helped immensely to evolve. Working at a constant pace also contributed to progress. She also realised that inventing, experimenting and making mistakes made her grow just as identifying personal goals and defining what success means to her in the evolutionary path.

For Bubbly, the creative response to the Coronavirus pandemic has been extraordinary.

In her surroundings, the stark and jagged mountains display brilliant shades of blue and purple at daybreak. Doorways beckon to a threshold which is a step to culminating peace among the people. The entrances offer a symbolic depiction of the warmth and hospitality of Omani citizens.

Different hues and their manner of interacting with each other become a language she uses to communicate to the viewer.

“It is a spontaneous pursuit which surges before it is comprehended rationally and the image develops naturally fusing the experiences of the inner self,” she adds.

The ever-increasing intensity of the colour is a constant towards her journey as an artist.

“The primary inspiration began with the unpolluted clarity of the desert light in Oman. This light plays beautifully on the mountains, sea, settlements and flora of this blessed country. Changing from a realistic portrayal to the intensity of my mind’s eye and the colour is depicted powerfully in most of my paintings,” she mentions.

The colours of the Omani sunsets were always inspiring as she continued to create paintings that echoed the brilliant hues. The wealth of colours feeds her soul strongly and she is yet again thankful to Oman for this enduring quality.

Her home studio in Qurum 18 is on the bright and sunny lower ground floor. The big work table has a collection of different types of paints, pastels, pencils and other essentials namely paintbrushes, palette knives, and easels. The studio has ample space and sunlight and also stores her unused canvases. She works on 2-3 paintings at the same time.

Being a resident in the Sultanate for over three decades has provided her opportunities to share her art with Omani citizens. She has donated several of her paintings which were auctioned at many prestigious venues in Muscat.

It was a rare honour for Bubbly to have the famed Guggenheim Museum in New York accept five of her drawings in 2013. The artist has held over 25 exhibitions in the Sultanate and also many major international and solo shows. An award of honour also came her way at Basel Art Week, Switzerland in 2018. International awards in competitions at Venice, Milan, and Florence and Berlin also followed.

Bubbly has all along presented the importance of the Sultanate at prestigious art venues in London, Paris, New York and Dubai.