What makes Gieve Patel’s revisit his favorite theme?

The senior artist has said, of his ‘well paintings’ series: "From boyhood onwards, I have never been able to pass by a well without looking into it. But it was only at the age of 50 that I first attempted to make a painting of this experience. I believed at that time that one or two paintings would be sufficient to cover the ground. However I found that the subject was inexhaustible.”

Explaining what makes him to revisit his favorite theme, he adds: “There was always another version waiting around the corner. It seemed that I could happily paint as many different paintings on this theme as an actual well itself will change almost from hour to hour depending upon the changes in the light and the reflected sky. Also, of course, the construction of each well and the vegetation growing from the sides will differ. Eventually, these wells have been pointers to me of congruence between outer and inner realities."

Born in Mumbai in 1940, Gieve Patel is a practicing physician, an artist, a poet and a playwright. Selected exhibitions include the Menton Biennale, France (1976); ‘India, Myth and Reality’, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1982); ‘Contemporary Indian Art’, Royal Academy of Art, London (1982); ‘Contemporary Indian Art, Grey Art Gallery, New York, 1985, ‘Coups de Coeur’, Halle Sud, Geneva, (1987); ‘The Times of India - Timeless Art’, Mumbai, (1989); and ‘Crossing Generations: Diverge’, Mumbai (2003).

Gieve Patel's poems have been widely published, and his plays have been published and performed. Patel is a recipient of Woodrow Wilson and Rockefeller Fellowships. His paintings are in public and private collections in India and in other countries, including the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal; the Jehangir Nicholson Collection, Mumbai; the Museum of Modern Art, Menton, France; the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts. The artist lives and works in Mumbai.