Dr Usha Shajehan’s paintings on display in Thiruvananthapuram celebrates the familiar

It is the mundane that inspires Dr Usha Shajehan as an artist. Her maiden exhibition currently on at Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram bears testimony to that.

She takes you through the stories behind the paintings with childlike-glee. Art had taken a backseat once she became a doctor. After 30-odd years in the profession, it was last year that she went back to her passion. By then both she and her husband, Dr Shajehan Sivasankara Pillai, who worked in the neurology wing of a reputed private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, had quit medicine. Since then life has revolved around their passion for cycling, swimming, and photography.

All her paintings, done in water colours, acrylic, oil and soft pastels, are based on photographs, either clicked by her, Dr Shajehan or other photographers. “My husband has always loved photography. His job as a neurosurgeon did not allow him to pursue it seriously. But during the pandemic, there was a lull at work for both of us. Since we were doctors we had access to areas under lockdown and that was when we explored Thiruvananthapuram with our cameras. While I took a detour and concentrated on painting, he still pursues it seriously,” she says.

Paintings by Dr Usha Shajehan exhibited in Thiruvananthapuram
| Photo Credit:
Dr Shajehan Sivasankara Pillai

Dr Usha says her friends had cajoled her into holding an exhibition. “My friend Beena said that it should have a concept and that’s why I named it The Rhythm of Life: A Dance of Light, Shade and Colours.” The works, over 130 of them, have been categorised and arranged based on that theme.

Starting with the section that shows how the earth gets lit up at daybreak, waking up Nature and life, it moves on to the beauty we see in flowers, leaves, water, and even household activities. Finally, it is time for the sunset, with light fading away as the world slips into slumber.

Therefore the paintings are about familiar sights — the sunrise, butterflies, wild animals, blooms, ocean, beaches, children playing by the waters, backwaters, snow, vignettes from rural terrain, people going about their daily grind etc.

The photographs that inspired the paintings were taken by Usha or her husband during the umpteen journeys in and around Kerala and outside the State. Besides places in Thiruvananthapuram such as Ponmudi, Vellayani, the Valiyathura pier etc, there are sights from Munroethuruthu, Kumarakom, Parambikulam, Kollengode, Palakkad, Kolukkumalai, and the Andamans among others.

Dr Usha Shajehan with her paintings exhibited in Thiruvananthapuram
| Photo Credit:
Dr Shajehan Sivasankara Pillai

Usha recalls that while she started out with water colours and acrylic, it was serendipity that saw her take up soft pastels as well. “We were on a vacation and I had injured my right shoulder. It was difficult to work with water colour. So I bought oil pastels and gave it a shot,” she says. The result was the stunning silhouette of a Theyyam at Thozhupadam in Thrissur. Among other eye-catching soft pastel works is the vibrant purple jacaranda blooms she saw at Kotagiri.

The exhibition, on at Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan, ends on November 26. Time: 10am to 6.30pm.