Nirmalendu Mandal?s work at Samokal gallery

These artists are mostly old newspaper hands. They have been associated with two of the leading city-based dailies. They are better known as illustrators but, of late, they have been making forays into an area that makes greater demands on their creativity.

Of the eight artists, whose works are being exhibited at Samokal Art Gallery at 23, Gariahat Road, all the six men are professional illustrators.

Nirmalendu Mandal used to do very realistic paintings at one time. Now, his works are all about women and nature, where they interchange their roles. His drawing is quite elegant and his depiction of the female form amidst foliage reminds one of the beauties so popular in the Forties and the Fifties.

Anup Ray is known for his photorealistic portraits. He, too, has chosen to depict the creative force as manifested in women. That is how she keeps the cycle of life going.

The world of fairy tales and myths comes alive in the works of Subrata Chowdhury, veiled with a soft, pellucid light. His paintings with a stork drinking from the head of a man and a mermaid with the head of a lion are pure fantasy.

Jayant Ghosh and Debasish Deb work in a different mode all together. Debasish does delightful paintings of cats in a frisky mood with an economy of bright colours. Better known as a cartoonist, his tomcats grin before their favourite food ? fish.

Ganesh is the inspiration of Jayant Ghosh. But, as conceived by this artist, he is not the god with a trunk. He is depicted with strong lines and his forms often verge on the fantastic. The surfaces of his works that have a strong graphic content are very textured. He uses muted colours that go well with his lines.

Nostalgia is the main ingredient of the works of Debabrata Chakrabarti and Dipti Chakrabarti. Shadows cover their images from which emerge 19th Century babus and bibis and women with a spinning wheel and the hookah.

The avian flu has come in handy for Parvati Mukherjee. She depicts the predicament of birds ? one of them hangs in the dock.