Pokhara:

The solo art exhibition of a young Pokhareli artist Ishan Pariyar being held at the PSM Art Gallery here from November 5 has managed to attract a number of art lovers.

Twenty-two-year-old Pariyar, a member and office secretary of Sirjanshil Kalakar Samuha, says he is inspired by the watercolour paintings of European artist Joseph Turner.

Those coming to the exhibition titled ‘Anubhavka rangharu’ (Colours of

experience) are taken in by the visual perfection and colour coordination in Pariyar’s paintings of the temples of Pokhara and landscapes.

Most of the 46 paintings are watercolours, with only a couple in acrylic. Pariyars’s work portray the village live well, while his paintings of Bindhyabasini, Barahi and Bhadrakali temples and gologhars of the villages are most lifelike.

Pariyar says he did not paint Pokhara’s mountains as he feels that places of cultural significance like temples, monasteries, chaityas and dewals have largely been ignored by artistes.

Pariyar, whose ancestral home is in Baglung and also lived in Shillong, India for some years, says he hasn’t been to art exhibitions held in other cities except Pokhara. Among the Pokhareli artistes, Pariyar says he is mostly inspired by the paintings of Durga Baral and Buddhi Gurung.

He adds he was encouraged to join this field after his painting on war won the first prize in an art exhibition organised by the Nepal Red Cross when he was just a Class VIII student. He was also awarded the regional art award in the Western regional art exhibition last year.

Pariyar held is first solo exhibition in Seoul, South Korea in June earlier this year, but he was not physically present at the exhibition. He had sent his paintings in someone else’s hands. About his future plans, he says he’ll be going to Kathmandu to study fine arts.