About Me

Prologue:

I am Deepa Gopal, a visual artist-creative writer from Kerala currently residing in Dubai. Winner of 2021 ‘Artgram’ Award at the Orange Flower Awards, I launched this blog, Hues n Shades, in 2009 as an online journal to keep track of my work and process, my creative endeavours and journeys that in all probability I thought would not be read by anyone. However, to my utter surprise, I soon became part of an online art community with some awesome friends over the years sharing our practices and processes with love and whole-hearted support.

Mission:

Now this is a serious platform where I explore not only my experiences, views and thoughts but also that of artists’ who have inspired me in some form or the other. I also love to bring together other women artists’, form a tribe, empower one another and that is something extremely close to my heart. In short, I try to integrate everything related to art that I come across. Almost always the world of art and artists’ incites awe and places me into a whole new realm where I naturally have to seek and discover meaning, form, dialogue, expression and everything else that lies there; sometimes hidden, sometimes bare. I am not an art critic but a true art “worshipper”; it is an upasana for me. I write about that which interests me in the hope that it would be valuable to someone out there at some point.

Vision:

A self –taught artist, I have done my Masters in English Language and Literature. Diversity is my forte, as I love to explore and experiment with various mediums and techniques. Most of my works are “mindscapes” as I like to call them, an introspection into the emotional and psychological states. My protagonists enjoy detachment; creating parallel worlds. Myths, dreams, visions, people and their tales, the emotions and the unbridled feelings kindle my creative juices both in art & poetry. I sometimes couple my art with Haiku (Japanese poetic style) or micro-poems.

A Learner:

Being an eternal learner, I seek a daily dose of learning from observation, reading, watching art videos/films and of course ultimately putting some of it to practice...it is a continuous learning process. There is never a P E R I O D to that which makes it quite exciting and turns me into an inquisitive child.

Accomplishments:

Having evolved through this blog, I have achieved more than I had intended for. It has not only helped me gain some wonderful friends from every nook and corner of the world but also helped me gain some wonderful clients (besides Facebook and Instagram).

I am grateful to have been part of the 50th Union Exhibition celebrating UAE’s National Day under the patronage of Her Highness Shaikha Dr. Shamma Bint Mohammed bin Khaled Al Nahyan, Chairman of the board of director of Culture and educational institutes, the Annual State Exhibition of Kerala (2017, 2020), 8th All India Women Artists’ Contemporary Art Exhibition (2019), International Mail Art Exhibition by New Hampshire Institute of Art, Peterborough (2019), a Collateral project under Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016, the National Conclave of Visual Art Writers conducted by Kendra Lalitkala Akademi and the Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi (2017) to name a few.  I conceptualized and curated my most recent, brainchild - an online exhibition of art and poetry, ‘IGNITE-from within the confines-‘ (2020) inviting artists and poets from across the world along with two other physical exhibitions in Durbar Hall, Ernakulam in 2016.

My poems have appeared in six anthologies so far - Whispering Poeisis (2018), Beyond Words (2020), The Kali Project (2021 – art & poem), Through the Looking Glass (artworks), and But You Don’t Look Sick (art & poems) and Timeless Inspirations (poem, 2021). I was featured in The Alipore Post (Winter Art & Poem).

Hues n Shades is one of the Top Indian Blogs since 2011. It was awarded the IndiBlogger Award in Arts and Theatre Category in 2013 and were among the top 9 and top 5 design blogs in the BlogAdda Awards and IB Awards of 2014, 2015 and 2017 respectively.

Epilogue:

Art breathes life into me; I find it quite meditative and reflective. It’s a means of expression of the social, political and/or personal commentary of the time/moment.

“I art, I write and therefore I am,” is my motto.

An 'Aside' :)

Thank you for dropping by. Please do go through different labels and tags of your interest. You can contact me for artworks – originals, prints & commissions, for guest posts, to get featured or simply to chat and share an experience… just drop me a mail.

Email: mail.huesnshades@gmail.com

Instagram: @dee.huesnshades

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Hues.n.Shades