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Mr. Narender Mehta oriented me on oil painting almost 12 years ago. I painted under his guidance for a few months and overcame my fear of mixing colours with oils and seeing colours take definite shapes on canvasses. He was hardworking, thoughtful and patient – brought me painting brushes, helped me stretch canvasses and advised me to create original works.

At that time, he devoted most of his time to teaching art to students of varying age groups — children to grown-ups like me — and painted only in those demonstrations. I got to see his oils done during his art college years or soon after at an art exhibition. But he hadn’t created anything for quite some time so had only his earlier works as exhibits. Then, about a year ago I came across an advert on a solo exhibition of his paintings and was pleasantly surprised to come across 2 rooms full of large canvasses in oils done by him. I bought a  painting of a jumping horse from his works for my home because it closely related to Kabir’s interests and living space. I also liked a lot of his landscapes for their impressionistic feel and speed of brushstrokes. Photographs of some of his works can be seen at his site at http://www.narendermehta.com/artworks-paintings-landscapes01.htm to get an idea of the vitality portrayed in his landscapes.

The next exhibition of Mr. Mehta’s paintings is on December 13-17 at Epicenter in Gurgaon and promises to delight fans of landscapes and still life. I’d be there and look forward to seeing my friends there too.