For centuries, the Camel Fair at Pushkar in Rajasthan, has been a colorful mingling of sacred ritual and
business. Around the full moon in the month of Kartik (October and November), 200,000 or so pilgrims and
traders come to this town to trade some 50,000 camels and other livestock and to take a cleansing dip in lake
by one of the two temples in India dedicated to Brahma. At Pushkar, it was the sight of the ghats around the
lake that enthralled Paresh. “About 52 ghats and a profusion of people with cattle, cows, camels, women with
those long lehengas and rich embroidered work with beads, mirrors and bells. The scene is a fantastic mix of
another age in today’s world. The colour that they wore, the magenta, the sunset yellow, the parrot green,
nowhere in India do we encounter so many colours all at once. I came back and started a few watercolor with
just different studies of these faces.” This is how the Niyaka series in his genre was born. Face to face series
for Paresh derives it very essence from the power of memory. Through the faces that came off his train of
thought, Paresh’s attempt was to capture the elusive images of the human countenance in concrete definite
forms.
A very skilled artist, he wields a rugged palette, and is extremely versatile in his treatment of colour and
texture. He has held many solo shows, including exhibitions at Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, Gallerie
Ganesha in New Delhi and Gallery Katayun in Kolkata. He has participated in various group shows like the
National Art Exhibition in Jaipur, Kala Mela, Lalit Kala Academy in New Delhi, and the Citibank Group
Show in Mumbai. Besides other accolades, he has also received the National Scholarship from the
Government of India and the All India Mini Sculpture Exhibition Award from AIFACS. He gradually
moved from atmospheric scenery to representations of the human form. His more recent paintings are bold
and graphic, with a strong color and unusual cropping. His works are in a number of collections, including
the British Museum, and the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. In early years he did many
watercolors of different locations.
Text Reference:
Excerpts from the book Life and Works of Paresh Maity by Uma Nair published by Art Musings, Mumbai, CIMA Gallery, Kolkata, Gallerie Ganesha, New Delhi and Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore