Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): “I am painting my impressions of India,” says Olivia de Bona, as she takes a short break from working on a huge wall in front of the Banquet Hall at the Ravindra Convention Centre in the city on Friday noon.
Dressed casually in a pair of jeans and T-shirt and holding a mug full of blue acrylic paint with brushes dipped into it, Olivia, who is an artist from France, says that the legendary singer Tansen also figures in her work.
Olivia, along with Monsieur Poes, another artist from Lyon in France, was here as part of the second edition of the Wall Art Festival, organised by the network of Alliances Francaises in India from November 7 to December 2, 2022. The festival is being organised in Bhopal from November 22-30.
French painter Monsieur Poes making his artwork on a wall across the entry to Gauranjini Auditorium at the Ravindra Convention Centre in the city on Friday. | FP Photo
Poes is working on another painting on a wall across the entry to Gauranjini Auditorium at the Centre, with tropical music playing on a bluetooth device. His work, he says, is a mix of his impressions of the State Tribal Museum, Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ and of Beethoven Frieze, painted by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt at Vienna in 1902.
“It will have snakes, a snake charmer and many other things - just like Jazz,” he told the Free Press.
Both the artists, who are visiting Bhopal for the first time, said they were highly impressed by the Tribal Museum. “We are planning to spend the entire Sunday there, along with someone who can explain things to us,” said Olivia. They said that Wall Art was very popular in France in the olden times. “But it went out of fashion in between, only to stage a comeback in recent years,” said Poes.
“Wall paintings democratise art. Even people who otherwise won’t visit galleries or museums can see and appreciate art,” he says. “Cities are often grey and dull and boring. Wall art brightens them up, it injects vibrancy and colour into the ambience,” added Olivia.
Olivia also said that the narrative and figurative paintings are her forte. Poes also likes to paint narratives. As part of the festival, Olivia has already made her paintings in Chandigarh, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram while Poes has reached Bhopal via Chennai, Jaipur and Mumbai.
What Poes likes about India is her diversity. As for Bhopal, the lakes, the greenery and the open spaces in the city attract the duo.
Alliance Francaise, Bhopal director, Thomas Simoes said, “The idea behind the Wall Art Festival is to make France and India meet. India has a very old tradition of wall art, while in France, it was revived about 30 years back. Nowadays, you can find lots of murals on walls of homes.”
