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Though he also paints in oils, Manash's medium of choice is watercolor, in the use of which he has developed a singular style of exceptional felicity. It is, in his words, the ‘accidental facility of the medium' that delights him. Each work becomes a voyage of discovery, a spontaneous engagement between washes of pulsating color and the tonal ‘moods' of the medium, to create a sparkling luminosity of effect. In the process, ‘every single trickle or dab is left undisturbed', and purity is maintained through a sensitive juxtaposing of complementary accent hues that build up to a structured crescendo.
In his portrayal of faces, Manash uses line and subtle gradings of monotone, to build up a feeling of weight and structured substance, similar to oils. Thus, a startling expressiveness distinguishes his faces – exultant delight in the grin of a ‘Winner'; mute anguish in the knotted fist and parted lips of a prisoner under ‘Siege'; or an almost comical look of glee in a man getting in ‘The Last Word'.
Manash's choice and depiction of subject is simple. According to him, life offers art a huge storehouse of experience to work with. Rather than dwell on social or moral issues, he prefers to illuminate the many facets of joy that lie in everyday situations, parallel with pain and conflict. Thus, he develops a singular mood within the plastic components of each painting; awareness of beauty – flamboyant, delicate, or poignant with nostalgia – in his numerous symphonies of flowers; a celebration of the commonplace in his uniquely vivid design of a vase or a landscape; joy in the riotous extravagance of leaves in ‘Nature'; or amused awareness of a typical reaction as mirrored in a human face.
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