You will find life inside their eyes. When I first observed his head paintings, I realized that they are mainly focused on the pain of the subjects where an individual feels enormous pain of inner contradictions, society rules, and regulations. According to Mr. Kalra, pain is a pure emotion that keeps hiding in the heart of every individual in different ways. In his head paintings, he does not only limit himself in the representation of pain, you can find that his paintings include a great understanding of fear. His collection of screaming heads have heart spearing aura, a great composition of colors, and convincing eyes that are very powerful to make people feel the emotion of fear which his subjects are feeling. You will find life inside their eyes.
Talking Heads by Artist Vikash Kalra
The portrait making is not a cakewalk mainly because all the emotions of a person can release through his face and eyes. While painting ahead a painter needs to work excessively on the face so that the subject can easily convey the feelings. The slightest mistake in the head painting can lead to different emotions and stories which will convey the wrong message to the viewer. If a painting is not able to connect with the viewer then it lost its significance. If a painter is painting ahead then it becomes almost impossible to ignore the emotions which are shown on the face of the subject so it becomes very necessary for them to get very focused on the theme of the painting.
Painting connected with the viewer own pains and happiness
We can see many emotions in the head paintings of Vikash Kalra; the eyes of the subjects speak very loudly and boldly. He is truly an artist of emotions who does not only connect the painting with the viewer’s own pains and happiness but also connects his feelings with the paintings for better results. When I asked him about his style of painting heads he said that his head paintings are very theme-oriented and they mostly ignore the importance of artistic impressions.
The heads of his paintings contain both emotional as well as spiritual impressions which are mostly due to his visits to different parts of the country where spirituality and emotions combined with each other. Mr. Kalra is a passionate traveler, he has got the chance to travel to many countries and meet thousands of people. We can see vivid expressions and emotions of these people on his head paintings.
They are all very different in the structures
When you observe his head paintings, you will find that they are all very different in the structures but the core, or I should say the soul is very similar. You will find life inside their eyes. The energy in his work creates wonderful heads which do not only influence emotions but also communicate with the viewers with ease.
When I first observed his head paintings then I realized that they are mainly focused on the pain of the subjects where an individual feels enormous pain of inner contradictions, society rules, and regulations. According to Mr. Kalra, pain is a pure emotion that keeps hiding in the heart of every individual in different ways. In his old paintings, he explores many kinds of pains and sacrifices of subjects.
Once upon a time, I asked him to explain the different kinds of pains which his subjects feel, his explanation includes the pain of honesty in which a subject work very hard and is very honest with his work but he was not getting enough applauds and wages. He remembers the days of his struggles when he was working very hard without caring about day or night but he was not getting that much appreciation and wage according to his works. Whenever he talks about the pain of an artist in the journey of art he put an example of Von Gogh.
Heads are full of disgust and terror
In his head paintings, he does not only limit himself in the representation of pain, you can find that his paintings include a great understanding of fear. His collection of screaming heads have heart spearing aura, a great composition of colors, and convincing eyes that are very powerful to make people feel the emotion of fear which his subjects are feeling. The way he represents fear in his head painting is quite admirable. Most of his fearing heads are full of disgust and terror which they feel in their day-to-day life in our society. While talking about fear as a primary element in his head paintings Mr. Kalra said that his subjects do not fear of unknown or intruder but they fear due to their own thinking and madness which move in their mind continuously. “They fear from the people whom they love” he added. His fearing heads are very complicated to understand but the emotions convey so smoothly and elegantly that you will surprise by the representation.
Not only fear and pain but he has a collection of heads that show greed, inner contradictions, and fights, dreams, confidence, truth, spirit, and happiness. Due to his vast understanding of emotions throughout his journey as an artist and a common man, he efficiently shows deep emotions in his head paintings.
Colour compositions of his paintings play a very important role
The greed on the face of the subject show the truth of over-ambitious society which does not care about each other feeling but it only focused on the need and mortal achievements. During his life as a struggle, he faced these types of people a lot. He knows the power of positivity to overcome these types of thinking. He paints what he feels and it becomes the absolute truth of his life.
The wonderful color compositions of his paintings play a very important role in conveying the feelings and opinions of the artist.
Mr. Kalra is a very passionate traveler and he toured India many times, due to the impressions of many different people in a different zone of India, he got vast knowledge on emotions and understandings. Due to the very large cultural diversity in the Indian subcontinent, he got a very good amount of understanding of different cultures of different people.
In his head paintings, we can find wonderful figures of people with dreams in their eyes, the broken dreams, unfulfilled dreams, there are very few portraits that have images of happy faces, maybe due to struggles.
The spiritual figures have a special place in his head paintings and he himself is a great devotee of Lord Shiva. The impression of a Hindu god and goddess can be found in his spiritual paintings and they do not only inspire a single community but a person of any religion can relate and experience peace while observing those arts.
One of the main reasons for his works in spiritual paintings is the search for truth and finding himself. He connects with his inner self with the bridge of faith and spirituality.
Vikash Kalra is a self-taught artist and writer based in New Delhi whose work has been exhibited across India and is held in several private and corporate collections.