Colours of the Wind

From: Indian Express, India - Jan 24, 2005

FINNISH ARTIST, SOILE YLI-MAYRY DISPLAYS HER BRIGHT AND COLOURFUL WORKS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

New Delhi, January 24: In Finland, there is no colour,'' explains Soile Yli-Mayry, waving at her canvasses, ''That's why I must make colour of my own.'' And she certainly has. Her paintings are screamingly fuschia, yellows so bright they make your eyes hurt and deep rich purples. They are all very abstract too, squiggly lines like electric wires splattered all over the canvas.

''I didn't always paint like this,'' says Yli-Mayry, ''In the early '70s, I used to paint mainly portraits. But just the hand,'' she gestures, ''is so useless, there's only so much it can do.'' So, in order to paint her expansive canvasses, something she was unable to do manually, she turned to the palette knife, a little trowel shaped instrument used to scrape the palette clean and used it to carve into her work. ''I have found my instrument,'' she says proudly.

Yli-Mayry is in the capital as part of the XI-Triennale-India, but has been to India five times before. ''In Goa, this German gallery owner saw my work online and invited me to do a show for him,'' says the artist who has also had about 210 solo exhibitions all over the world, including countries like Japan, China, Latin America and the United States.

Born to deaf-mute parents, Yli-Mayry had always wanted to be an artist. ''I was never interested in flowers or dolls,'' she muses, ''And in this respect, I'm really glad I didn't have 'normal' parents, because if I did, I wouldn't be where I am today.''

You know she means business when she says: ''People always ask me how I manage to paint for 10 hours at a stretch, without stopping for food or water. And I always ask them how they don't?''

© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world.