ARTIST Rokeya Sultana has been exhibiting her works for several decades. Along the way she has bagged accolades and appreciation galore--and she deserves every bit of the recognition and praise. True, her journey to this point in her career has involved some roller coaster rides, and to reach the pinnacle of success, she has had to combine teaching with painting and homemaking. She had the fortune of being born in a family

Rokeya Sultana

where the arts were appreciated and encouraged. After her marriage she spent lonely days in Shantiniketan, striving and working her heart out. Since then she has won prizes at home and abroad, which she treasures but does not flaunt.

Rokeya lures you to her world of poetic dreams, in which she combines lyrical images of the female nude forms and sets that on a scintillating dream-like backdrop of warm clouds, rivers and paddy fields in caressing colours. She uses warm colours such as vermilion, turquoise and cobalt blue, mingling that with yellow ochre and expanses of white that appear like driven snow. The colours and forms appear to dance and sing with joie de vivre, taking pleasure in the kalboishaki and the monsoon. The golden fields speak of the poems of Tagore, Nazrul and Jibanananda Das apart from more contemporary poets. As she listens to music of all genres, throughout the day, that is when she is not at work or socialising, she hums along while painting on sheets of paper, scattered all over her house.

She contemplates on her plan of work, having endless sketch-books, and then works with her tempera, swirling her paint-brushes of all shapes and sizes. She has qualified in printmaking but is into tempera, in which opaque colours, water and gum are used. She finds this the best medium to express her doubts, dreams, experiences and imagination. In this female world of blissful dreaming in joyous paints and colours, the rhythm and melody of her paintings remain unchallenged.

Her work maybe seen in three different groups. There is this feminist world, although without angst, in which she depicts her life and struggle along with her daughter Laura. She delineates them struggling through the Dhaka streets, and even voyaging in boats, symbolising her struggle as a mother, wife and working artist. There is then the section in which she has revelled in nature and man's relationship with nature around him. There is an element of pantheism in this along with romanticism. Trees, blossoms, grass, rivulets, flowers and birds have been depicted in cascading hues and strokes. The texture work on paper -- which is mounted on a large canvas-- remains magnificent. Her lines are confident, her sweep bold and dynamic. The final impact is a transformation of Bangladeshi lyrical poetry and songs into Relation-13

paintings. At present she is combining the two forms in which she has intertwined the three major sections of her painting in her career.

Living and travelling overseas, along with experiencing life at home, Rokeya's horizon remains

optimistic -- reaching out to more romanticism. Her elan vital remains remarkable.

The preview took place on May 1 at the Bengal Foundation. The exhibition begins tomorrow.