Calcutta, Nov. 15 :    Calcutta, Nov. 15:  Paresh Maity seems to be the very embodiment of the saying: 'Nothing succeeds like success.' Suave and self-confident, he is a far cry from the young art school student fresh from his hometown in Midnapore, who used to stay in a Bowbazar boarding house run by two ancient Parsi ladies. He has been living in Delhi for the past 11 years and is in town for the opening of his exhibition at CIMA gallery on Thursday. He says he simply 'camps' in Delhi, while most of the time he is travelling in Prague, south of France, Venice, Rajasthan and Orissa. He admits readily that he prefers Delhi because 'you can expose yourself easily. If you want to work, you can work. There's nobody there to criticise you. Nobody bothers about who's doing what.' He has been painting continuously for the last four years and he has selected the best of the lot for Calcutta. Rajasthan still holds him spellbound and that land is the stimulus of his current exhibition. Turbaned men and women with braided hair partially concealed by their colourful odhnis people his large canvases. The hues of gold, emeralds, sapphires and rubies glow against the mysterious darkness. The moustachioed braves and doe-eyed beauties peer from his miniatures, too. He has conjured them up on tiny scraps of paper with sure and steady strokes of his brush. But here they are leavened with his wit - the quizzical lines seem to be taking a dig at the very tradition of romance and chivalry they glorify. 'It is a very colourful land (Rajasthan) - fantastic inspiration for any creative person. It is hypnotic and eerie. At Jaisalmer, after twilight you can see the desert mile after mile. The sky turns indigo - a transparent blue. Then you suddenly see a woman in a red ghaghra or a man in white wearing a red turban.' Nudes have made an appearance for the first time in his works. But instead of being charged with eroticism, they are curvaceous forms - bulbous breasts and buttocks - occupying a good part of the tiny space the pictures occupy. But here too the men seem to leer at a particular body part and snigger quietly. Levity is a new element Paresh has injected into his paintings. He says though the nudes are derived from our 'fascinating tradition of eroticism' here, they are more designal elements than anything else. 'I don't like very negative things. I always want to project positive things,' he explains. These are a combination of opaque and transparent watercolour which is still his 'heart and soul.' This is also his first exhibition in Calcutta where he is displaying his installations. He has carved solid man-height logs of wood into elongated faces of men and women that look quite totemic. These are placed next to a painted boat complete with fishing net and lantern and rows of earthen bowls. Says Paresh: 'They are like my paintings. The faces were elongated to give them a monumental, architectural feeling. And a boat is something never stranded - even when anchored it is always bobbing on water. I feel one should always be on the move - particularly as an artist. One should always evolve.'