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Pitshanger Manor and GalleryExhibitionShanti Panchalprivate mythsFri 26 May - Sat 8 July 2000 Shanti Panchal moved from India to work in Britain in 1978. His large scale,
vibrant watercolours reflect an unusual intensity not normally associated with
the medium and today he is considered one of Britains most celebrated figurative
painters. Pitshanger Manor Gallery curates the first major solo London show for
the West London based artist. Panchal’s work is autobiographical in nature, echoing a poignant nostalgia for India. The brilliant red skies, a recurring backdrop in his work, and his consistent choice of earthen colours are reminiscent of the landscape of Gujarat. Panchal has developed his own personal visual language, and offers here an insight to his distinctive style and technique... "....During my early years in London, and while traveling to Europe and America, I observed that, historically, the potentials of watercolour had not been explored to the same extent as those of oil and acrylic. Watercolour paintings were limited to pretty flowers and sweet landscapes. It was a very frustrating experience. I was not prepared to accept the conventional limits of the medium...
....in my paintings of the family in which I grew up, where western notions of privacy were absent, the characters manage to create their own inner space and the very lack of privacy often highlights their essential loneliness... .....I seek spiritual vision and values through my work; although the mystical and spiritual vision of El Greco and William Blake move me immensely, my own understanding and interior vision is firmly rooted in my Hindu sensibility." Shanti Panchal The accompanying catalogue produced by Pitshanger Manor Gallery with an essay by Norbert Lynton will be on sale for the duaration of the exhibition, price £4.95. 
Pitshanger Manor & Gallery ADMISSION FREE
Times Tues - Sat 10am to 5pm Closed Bank Holidays Tel 020 8567 1227 Fax 020 8567 0595 e-mail: pitshanger@ealing.gov.uk Travel
BR and Tube: Ealing Broadway (10 minutes
from Paddington) Wheelchair Access. Lift service available in museum .Limited on-site parking for orange badge holders by special arrangement.
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/ started working
obsessively, even to the point of damage, from 12'x6' canvas to 12"x6"
paper. To achieve depth, the colour has to penetrate the paper. / do not mix
colours on a palette but directly on the paper itself. Through the process of
hammering and scraping the surface, shifting images and ideas, working and
reworking, my success and failure have become on integral port of the painting.
/ use layers and layers of colour - layers and layers of life's experiences
injecting into the fibre of my existence, so ecstatic and at the same time so
suicidal... .