CHITRA CHINTAN

It is not often that one finds a personality who can express in a multitude of mediums, gives equal justice to each expression and be soulfully subjective. Jyotsna Sambhaji Kadam, an intuitive painter, a poetic writer and a scholarly art critic dons all with immense zeal. Coming from a rich knowledge base of the brilliant painter and scholar late Shri Sambhaji Kadam, Jyotsna Kadam began her artistic career from the prestigious Sir J.J. School of Art’s classical pedagogy. Her artistic oeuvre constitutes a great hand in academic art, though her passion is her abstractions expressing reflections of nature.

Jyotsnaji realised her love of nature in her childhood cradled in the vast Sahyadri ranges of the western ghats, though it must have been so ingrained in her that it became her second nature. Her practice, expanding to more than three decades now, is her mystic contemplation of the vastness of nature, quite often mountains. Her recent set of works are infused with immense energy, as if ignited with her spirit of life and withholding the source of creation inherent in the constant regeneration of nature. Abstraction in itself is not an easy area to define, but her works when viewed in solace are not abstract, not even to a nascent eye. They are visions of the infinite suns we have seen, the nights we have been awake and stared at the shining stars, the evenings we have been perturbed by someone or something, the dawns we have awakened to, or have been awake enough hours to witness the magic of skies. We can dream in the colour swatches, and wake up to the reality known as our life with the plethora of colours that dance to symphony in her paintings.  Significantly, her works are replete with sensuality, the force of the living. I am incessantly reminded of references from Bhagavata Geeta when witnessing these ‘scapes’.

यदादित्यगतं तेजो जगद्भासयतेऽखिलम्।

यच्चन्द्रमसि यच्चाग्नौ तत्तेजो विद्धि मामकम्।।15.12।।

(That light in the sun which illuminates the whole world, that which is in the moon, and that which is in fire,-know that light to be Mine.)

The paintings here have been able to encapsulate this light, which runs in vitals of all the universe. The geeta tells us that, ‘those who are diligent see this [light] one as existing in themselves. The non-discriminating ones who lack self-control do not see this [light] one-though (they be) diligent.’

यतन्तो योगिनश्चैनं पश्यन्त्यात्मन्यवस्थितम्।

यतन्तोऽप्यकृतात्मानो नैनं पश्यन्त्यचेतसः।।15.11।।

This light is what I would call the experience of sublime, sensuality that has the capacity to glimpse at the ‘beyond’, of the life force within us and outside ourselves. Jyotsna Kadam’s paintings take a peek at this light, as her contemplation has given her the diligence to transcend beyond the obvious. Her ‘chitra chintan’ is the journey towards sublimity, which opens up the ray of light for the ones diligent and also the less diligent.

Snehal Tambulwadikar Khedkar

Art Historian, Curator, Artist