Twin flowers by Mrinal Mandal

Many artists abroad have for some time now discarded the implements of sketching such as the pencil and paintbrush in favour of high-tech tools such as the video camera. Call it a regressive mindset, if you will, but many young artists here are still happy and proud to wield as simple and basic an implement as the pencil and occasionally charcoal as well, and getting away with it too.

Such a one is Mrinal Mandal, whose exhibition of sensitive pencil sketches opens at Gallery Katayun on Wednesday. This 29-year-old artist raised amidst the dense sal forests of Jhargram quite naturally turns to these huge trees that he seems to feel a kinship with.

Mandal uses the pencil with the delicacy of a paintbrush and although grey is the dominant note, that single colour has many subtle shades and nuances that he sometimes uses to beautiful effect. The work Pointerelle shows a sea of presumably sal leaves that looks like a floor dappled with the rays of sunshine. Or else it is a dry sal leaf wrinkled and puckered up like the visage of an ancient human being.

Otherwise, he takes viewers for a walk through these once-dense forest that are gradually being wiped out in the name of progress. Here, trees stand like sentinels around space that was once their own, stretching out their arms in a protective embrace.

In another work, the barks of the trees and their leaves create a world of magical light and shadows. One does not have to stretch one?s imagination too far to discover that they resemble crevasses or dried parchment.

What sets these works apart is their size. Sketches are usually small and hastily executed. These sketches are the size of major works ? one of them is 3 ft by almost 2 ft. Another is 15? x 11?. His charcoal sketches, too, demonstrate that Mandal has a keen eye for details ? the twin long-stemmed flowers are like embodiments of nature?s vulnerable beauty.