DIFFERENT STROKES
INDIAN EXPRESS - AUG 7, 2002
   

Deepti Naval
M O O N L I G H T I N G

DEEPTI NAVAL’S soaking in the monsoon magic, only to reach for her paint brush in an instant, to capture the mood on canvas.

Painting is one hobby actress Deepti Naval goes back to when she feels like it. “I have painted since my college days, but for almost a decade, it took a backseat because I was neck-deep in acting. In the past decade I rediscovered this hobby,” she says. A nature enthusiast and fond of trekking, Naval has traveled most of the regions of the Himalayas. When she is home, she translates some of the scenic beauty on canvas. Oil on canvas is her medium, while landscape and figures form her subjects. Sometime ago, she held an exhibition at the Jehangir Art Gallery and will hold another, once “I accumulate some more works”.

Though no time is fixed for painting, Naval normally sits with her brushes and colours when she is at home. And when she’s not acting.

Naval is also a poet in her own right, with a Hindi collection Lamha-Lamha to her credit. (Another in English is in the pipeline.) And then she does photography too. “All of these five give me a creative satisfaction, but painting is what I relate to a whole lot.”

Painting, acting, photography and poetry, Naval packs up a lot in a day’s work.

MOHAMMED WAHJIHUDDIN