For artist Shibu Natesan, little details capture reality
In Shibu Natesan’s Delhi exhibition, his largest to date, painting can be seen as a mirror to everyday life
There is a quiet gravitas to the works on display across the two floors of Art Alive Gallery in Delhi. Each watercolour, be it landscape, portrait or self-study, features an interplay of light, shadow and colour. Artist Shibu Natesan, 59, deftly works with these elements to imbue every painting with a unique atmosphere. The painter’s gaze seems to be akin to that of a photographer’s. The paintings are nearly photorealistic, conveying the feel of the environment, the personality of the subject and the essence of the landscape to the viewer.
Yet, the watercolours are not mere faithful reproductions of the people or scenes that Natesan might have come across during his travels. They are not just about freezing time. He creates a humanitarian narrative by invoking small details and minute observations that might have been ignored otherwise—the fall of tendrils in Ophelia (After Millais), the cage-like feel of wooden bars and grills in A Day in the Life of Construction Work, the way the tarpaulin hangs precariously in a storm-ravaged urban landscape in After the Storm.
These works created over the past decade are part of the show Mirror Man, Mirror Me (2014-2025), the artist’s largest watercolour exhibition till date. This is the first phase of the show, with the second part to be showcased at the gallery in January 2026. “The title underscores the artist’s belief in painting as both personal archive and societal reflection. Through delicate studies of self and surroundings, Natesan positions art as a mirror to everyday life—intimate, contemplative, and resonant with the quiet intricacies of existence," states the curatorial note.
Born in Thiruvananthapuram, Natesan’s tryst with art started at an early age. While studying painting at the College of Fine Arts in his home town, he was deeply influenced by German Expressionism, Latin American films and literature, and the political upheavals of the 1980s. At the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he gravitated towards the photorealistic paintings of Gerhard Richter and the expressive figurative works of Richard Hamilton and Vija Celmins. “In the 1990s and early 2000s, Natesan’s work was characterised by critical responses to the political turmoil of the era… . This was followed by a turn away from photographic art, with a slow transition into plein air and still life painting... . (Now) Natesan makes a study of the changing conditions that he paints with an eye that is almost photographic, and transfers the serenity that he says painting gives him into his brushstrokes," states a catalogue essay contributed by the Guild Gallery, Mumbai.
Mirror Man, Mirror Me showcases this evolution of the artist’s visual vocabulary over time. Natesan finds harmony and rhythm in whatever he witnesses. “I don’t let the subject matter limit me. During my travels across the world, I can sense when some things don’t want to be painted. We are very human centric in our approach, and don’t acknowledge things around us. Painting gives me a lot of clarity about the world," he says. “If I could paint everyday, I would be very happy."
While the large-scale landscapes and portraits dominate the show, it is a series of around 40 self-portraits, made this year, that catch the eye. These self-studies are not exercises in vanity or experiments in framing. Rather, each frame evokes a different atmosphere. There are two facets to these self-portraits that stand out. One is the physicality of the work itself, in which gradations of light and colour offer changes in mood of the subject, the time of day and the season. The other aspect that comes forth is the “self" as a holder of memory, the way the self sees the world and mulls over those perceptions.
Natesan started painting self-portraits early in his career due to lack of models to sit for him. “Painting oneself is a very difficult thing to do. I can’t detach myself from the ‘self’," he says. Natesan refers to masters like Rembrandt, who did self-portraits later in their careers, and looked at the existentialism of artists and ways of dealing with themselves. He turned to self-portraits in 1996-97, when he was selected for a residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. There he came across self-studies by early 20th century painters such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
“There are two kinds of realities that we face in the world. One is our own reality, and the other is a reflected one, which is given to us by the media and society. We tend to respond only to this external reality rather than introspecting within," says Natesan. For him, creating a self-portrait is a way of getting back into the rhythm of painting after a break. “I can’t just start by painting a specific theme or subject. My ritual of getting back to the studio starts with the self-portrait," he adds.
These self-studies are not means of glorifying himself, but about bringing forth some unknown strand of his subconscious. “Everyday I paint myself in the morning. It might feel like repetition of the same thing, but it is not. The underlying emotion is different. A lot of times you don’t have to analyse the ‘why’ of everything. That question should not even arise. You need to just go with the flow," he says.
At Art Alive, Delhi, till 20 November, Monday to Saturday, 11am-7pm.
topics
