MY FIRST EXHIBITION

Jun 27, 2020

State Gallery of Hyderabad September 2011

Taking part in a few successful charity auctions, made me think of exhibiting my art to a wider audience. I find that the deadline imposed by an exhibition helps to concentrate my efforts and provides the intensity needed to produce some of my best work. For my first exhibition, I was very fortunate to have an Indian actor, Nagarjuna, launch the exhibition. His wife, Amala, also an actress, attended alongside him and lit a candle to bless the event.

As I was based in Mumbai, the logistics of organising the exhibition in Hyderabad were more challenging but I was fortunate to have my family and friends to help me organise the event. I had to get the pieces packed and transported from Mumbai to Hyderabad. I exhibited about 25 pieces with the theme ‘Journey of a Free Soul’ featuring my paintings of Sufis, Buddha’s and other spiritual subjects.

The exhibition was a great success; it was covered well by local media where I received good reviews and this gave me the confidence to continue to develop my art skills. I realised that day that your success is very much dependent on you. When you start seeing success as something you can control, your entire outlook changes. You can determine how much success you want. I want to particularly talk about visualisation here; visualisation has been a part of my meditation process for years and I visualised how the event would take place.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the event went off very similarly to my vision. I carried the energy from that event for days to come. Thus began my journey into the world of exhibiting.