Dreamy eyed lasses populate the canvases of Pravin Utge. These girls with syrupy looks are engaged in different daily activities; some of them are religious, some of them are playful and yet another lot is in conversation with nature. The serene atmosphere created by the artist takes the viewer to a different realm of aesthetical pleasure. There is no agitation and conflict in the lives of these young protagonists. They are not led by any ‘isms’ or ideologies. In their dreamy lives, they are perfect and sedate, and they tend to remain eternal like the imageries of love in a ballad.

Formally speaking, the cool colors that Pravin employs to build up the backdrop of the paintings are apt to represent the ‘ritus’ (seasons) of India. With the shifting tones of yellows, reds, whites and blues, the artist captures the essence of the Indian seasons. It would be the folly of a viewer if he/she is not reminded of the Hindustani classical ragas and the plays written by the legendary poet, Kalidasa. Like in the great literary works and the musical narratives, the changes of the seasons connote the changes in the lives of a woman.

Though the life of a woman in our times is conflict ridden, the artist does not want to critically approach the politico-cultural aspects of it. Instead, he invests his energies on highlighting the eternal beauty of woman and her soul. Their bodies, almost transparent and translucent in their treatment do not just represent their erotic potential but they symbolically bring the spiritual purity. An interested viewer could see that Pravin does not attempt to bring the quotidian aspects of an urban woman’s life, instead he focuses on the desired lyricism of the rural life.

This desired lyricism of rural life is a projection of the artistic thinking on the harsh realities of the present day life of people whether it is in the urban spaces or in the rural areas. But by submerging them with the lyrical beauty of these paintings the artist intends to show the world that this could be a possibility; a return to the primal innocence where the girls live a carefree life by looking into the mirrors and playing in the lotus ponds. This possibility is a metaphorical one as the artist understands that such possibilities are realized only in the realm of art.

In Pravin Utge’s works modern paintings techniques meet the traditional tempera and pigment oriented painting methods. These paintings derive their creative and imaginative energies from the traditional murals, folk and tribal art and the Indian miniatures. Though there is a deliberate reduction of narrative strategies in these works, the artist intends these frozen moments of depiction to be a part of the larger narrative, which as I aforementioned, could be both lyrical and musical.

Keen eyes could see how Pravin Utge divides the pictorial plane into different levels in order to facilitate the blooming of the painterly thematic. Even in their insular zones, Pravin very skillfully incorporate the religious, domestic, public and secular matters (as in worshiping, playing, processions and so on) pertaining to the lives of women. Also, by gathering them as group images, Pravin suggests that even in their remote lives, women are always united by their womanhood itself.