Oil Finger Paintings Offer Fresh Insight | Literary & Visual Arts | Arts ...

A finger painting by Rita Kapadai (Rita Kapadia)

Of the many talented Canadian artists, Ottawa-based Rita Kapadia stands out. Kapadia?s work offers a fresh insight into the extraordinary potential of the ordinary oil paints used by many contemporary painters.

As was evident at her first exhibition recently at Spiral Gallery in Ottawa? s Little Italy, Kapadia?s special love of nature and its beauty, and the empathy she has with her subjects such as in the work ?Gypsy Bridegroom,? give her paintings a timeless quality.?

A finger painting by Rita Kapadia(Rita Kapadia)

Kapadia uses her fingers and a piece or two of cloth?a rag in other words?to apply colours onto the paper. Her fluid touch and the increasing brilliance of the palette of colours she uses demonstrate a brilliant artistic talent that took a long time to mature.

Kapadia began her career studying economics at the London School of Economics and worked as an economist in India before her marriage. She had always been interested in painting but at the time, art was considered a ?hobby? in India.?

In the 1980s, Kapadia started painting in oils, using brushes to put the paint onto canvas, but after a few years she lost interest and stopped painting. In 2001, however, while living in the Philippines, a German artist noticed her talent and introduced her to a new technique: applying the oil paint to paper or canvas with one?s fingers and hands instead of with brushes.

Kapadia loved this method and changed her technique totally. She started to paint with oils on paper using only her hands and a piece of cloth.?

The artist?s aim is to introduce as much light as possible into her work. Her main focus is on people, especially their faces, as well as on the natural world. Her paintings are in private collections in the Philippines, Hawaii, Germany, and Canada.

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Susan Hallett is an award-winning writer and editor who has written for The Beaver, The Globe & Mail, Wine Tidings and Doctor?s Review among many others. Email: hallett_susan@hotmail.com.

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