Nalini uses art to positively contribute to others

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Nalini “Roshell” Singh, self-taught artist for eight years, said she’s best known for possessing a unique capability to transform a variety of miniature mediums into fine art. Her second solo exhibition, Mindful Escape, runs from January 31 to February 12 at the Arnim’s Art Galleria, Port-of-Spain, Mondays to Saturdays.

“I attained a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, and such inspiration was used into creating mathematical-abstract paintings during the experimental stages of my abstract work,” she revealed.

Singh said her work has evolved from the traditional landscape/seascape pieces on canvas, to painting large canvas abstracts along with detailed, nature, miniature pieces such as a one cent piece, heads of a match sticks, sea shells, guitar picks, a razor blades, and thumbtacks, among many others.

“There’s no limit to what medium or materials I can use to create works of art,” she said.

Singh explained that using art as a means of positively contributing to others is paramount, and is one of the driving forces behind her work.

“Being involved in projects where a percentage of my sales goes towards worthy causes, will always be part of my mission. I’m driven by one of my favourite quotes: The meaning of life is to find your gift; the purpose of life is to give it away.

“My art journey had its genesis as a teenager having initially loved sketching,” expressed Singh, “and years later, I would experience painting acrylic on canvas for the first time. This ignited a passion of wanting to capture landscapes and seascapes imagery.

“Tapping into my curiosity of seeing everything as a canvas, then evolved into painting miniatures on various objects. The feeling of creating a highly-detailed landscape into a very small surface made me feel like the creator of a tiny unexplored world—a world my audience would covey being charmed and captivated with. There has been a common theme of sunsets that never quite left my work.

“Introspection is a dominant character trait of mine and paintings of sunsets evoke a mood of self-reflection. Along with painting detailed pieces, abstract work is also a style I enjoy creating. There’s an internal balance of creating both heavily-detailed miniature and abstracts that bring a balanced, calm, melancholic escapism.”

Singh’s work is said to be inspired by the need to create and explore ever-changing ideas and perspectives.

Before creating new work, she said, some time’s taken to gather her thoughts on how she feels or reviews past ideas in the form of images saved.

Acrylic and oil on canvas are here go-to for most projects. Her tools of choice in creating abstracts, she said, are pallet knives, circular covers and straight edges, all used to convey a sense of order within the chaos of splattered, textured styles.

“Art means communicating my most intimate thoughts, feelings, observations along with encouraging a sense of playfulness that cannot be expressed using words only.

“Art will be my forever journey and will be open to interpretation with the hope of eliciting feelings of perspectives to its viewer.”