The Navhind Times - Memories in Play - 15th Feb 24

Memories in play

KALYANI JHA | NT BUZZ

'Timeless Ties: A Mother's Memoir', a solo exhibition by Jyoti Mehta is on display at Carpe Diem, Majorda

Jyoti Mehta from Santa Cruz has been interested in art and painting since childhood but was not able to pursue it then. "After my daughter was born, I started pursuing painting seriously as this was something that I could do while taking care of her. I also started participating in competitions and exhibitions," she says.

She has since been creating art on canvas for about 15 years now, having learned acrylic and water colour painting under the guidance of Sadguru Pandurang Chendvankar.

Mehta calls the act of painting "a form of meditation". "Brush and colours give me the language to translate my thoughts and feelings onto the canvas. When I paint, all the chaos in the outer world dies down and it gives me inner stability. Painting is a medium for me to spread love and happiness in everyone's life," she says.

Through the years, her art has been recognised with awards and prizes and she continued to grow professionally as an artist.

This series, 'Timeless Ties: A Mother's Memoir' as the name suggests, is inspired by childhood memories of Mehta and of her daughter. "I have special memories of my childhood. When my daughter was growing up, her friends and her relationship with the family reminded me of my childhood. It felt as if I was reliving it," she shares.

The mother and daughter share a strong bond and Mehta used to talk to her daughter about the similarities she sees in her daughter with her. "Then I thought, I am sharing it only with my daughter, why not convert these into paintings? At that time, I was looking for a theme for my next series, so I brought out all the memories of my childhood and her growing up years on canvas," she says.

The artist skillfully immortalises various instances on canvas, which invites viewers to relive their own memories and connect with the themes of love, joy, and familial bonds.

Now that her daughter is 18, Mehta has used old pictures and her own old memories as inspiration for her series.

This series has been done in acrylics. In fact, Mehta prefers acrylic over watercolour paintings as the former can be used on canvases. "Watercolour paintings have to be done on paper. I like the acrylic medium, as I am able to get the opaqueness of acrylic and as well as transparency like water colour. It dries quickly too," she says.

Mehta takes 10 to 15 days to complete a single painting. It has taken her one and half year to complete this series.

There are 60 painting on display in this series and the exhibition will be on display till March 3.

"This series is a mixture of memory, feelings and emotions. I hope my paintings will evoke people's feelings and take them down memory lane," she shares.