6 Artworks – Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

ARTIST STATEMENT

To me, colour is everything – the more vibrant the better! I like to draw and paint scenes from everyday life, and look for beauty in unusual places. I am an avid collector of odds and ends, paper bits, and cloth pieces which I use extensively in my collages. I am obsessed with the idea of transformation and like to use a wide variety of bits and bobs from my junk collection to decorate some of my artworks, which then takes on new meaning and life of their own. I find making mixed media collages meditative and relaxing. I work primarily with gouache, inks, and acrylic paints.

The six pieces in this series are part of a body of work that I am putting together during this period of lockdown. I find myself thinking about some of the everyday sights I used to photograph regularly on my twenty-minute walk to work: the striking maple tree near my workplace, the cluster of yellow bells near the train station, the lush wattle near my favourite coffee shop, the row of cherry blossoms. I miss these beauties now that I spend almost all my time within the walls of my studio in isolation. In this series, I document my fondest memories of being out and about in nature. I have envisioned them all in nocturnal settings, as seen through the frames of the rustic windows of my workspace. All pieces are 9”x12” and have been embellished with asemic writing.

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney poet, artist, and pianist. She’s a member of The North Shore Poetry Project, and Authora Australis. Her recent works have been published in print and online literary journals and anthologies including The Ekphrastic Review, Nine Muses Poetry, and Poetica Review.