OofP21.Delna Dastur
‘Balancing Act’ by Delna Dastur, charcoal and pastel on canvas, 40” by 40”, 2008
Of the featured piece, the artist says:
‘The title ‘Balancing Act’ has a number of interpretations.
The subject matter for the painting is trapeze artists walking and bicycling across tightropes under a circus tent. Their feet can be seen in different positions, arched, flat, tense, poised to maintain their balance high above the ground below. The festooned canopy of the tent floats above and many hands tightly grip the net below in case of a misstep.
The other interpretation of Balancing Act lies in the physical creation of the painting itself, the careful balancing of the geometrical elements and the more organic flow of the coloured shapes. The medium used is charcoal and pastel.
Great care has been taken to create a multilayered surface. Some of the shapes and colours are bold and sharply edged. Others lie submerged beneath pale washes of pastel, compelling the viewer to look deeper. Lines appear and disappear, moving from strong and black to pale and hidden, from straight and hard to soft and undulating. Colours are balanced and dispersed carefully across the surface. All the elements necessary in creating a painting are considered in depth.
The structure of this painting goes hand in hand with its theme.’