'My art work gets influenced by nature,' says Alka Mathur

New Delhi [India], Nov.18 (ANI): An art exhibition titled `Tea Time Under The Blue Sky', showcasing the work of Delhi-based artist Alka Mathur is going on at an art gallery at Bikaner House in New Delhi. The two-week long solo exhibition depicts paintings made of natural dyes, tea bags, block painting, stitching and writing. The inaugural day was graced by Rajeev Sethi, Founder Chairperson of the Asian Heritage Foundation and other personalities. Alka said her artwork reflects her proximity with the nature. Mathur said, "I am influenced by nature. Lot of artist gets influenced by nature but everybody has its own way of expressing, but I also enjoy a lot of traditional crafts and I go to a lot of crafts people, look at their work; collaborate with them, so I am collaborating with dyer also. I got influenced by the natural dyes because or I was just introduced to them by accident in a workshop but then I just fell in love with them because the colours were coming straight from nature and being a nature lover that sort of what I was probably looking for the last 10-15 years with natural dyes and colours. For Akla, tea bags are essential to her art. She writes on tea bags and also uses tea stains to add a tinge of colour to her artworks. Mathur further said, "As an artist, you have lots of accidents keep happening and with these accidents you keep discovering new mediums. So, the teabags also, I was looking for some natural colours outside. I didn't know which colour to use but I don't want to use synthetic colours. So, I said I drink tea every day, so why don't start using the colour of tea. So I started putting teabags on my paper and I started colouring my paper and gradually the tea bags start becoming a part of my art. Then I thought my not make it into a journal. So, wherever I go, I collect these tea bags. Like, if I am traveling to some place or sitting with someone at home, I collect that and write my experience as with whom I had that tea. So, it's more like a notebook. It not something I am contemplating something, its quickly you have to write, because the tea bad is wet and you have to write it on a piece of paper and write it on a tea bag later. So, you keep writing of whatever is happening in your life." Besides tea bags, the artist also collects everything from travel tickets, receipts, paper napkins to all sorts of other artifacts that mark events and time. (ANI)