The Open Studio / Almaa Solkar
Almaa Solkar
Konkan Culture
Fish bones glow on orange earth while the nets dry
The ground is the colour of turmeric warmed in oil.
A net falls from a raised arm, its knots pale as rice.
Small fish hang in rows by the roof, drying into the shapes of leaves.
Someone sits low on a stool in white cloth, hands busy.
Across the earth a great fish skeleton lies open, its eye still round.
The wood leaves its grain in the dark corners, like the shade of late afternoon.
The work
Almaa Solkar studies at Devrukh College of Art and Design in Ratnagiri. Konkan Culture draws on life in the Konkan. Solkar carves the image into a block of MDF. The carving works in large masses of colour. It does not chase fine realistic detail. Over three days Solkar pulls four to five colour impressions from the block. Each colour lands on top of the last. The palette of burnt orange, cream and deep maroon is slightly unusual. Solkar chooses it to match the mood of the place.
In the artist’s words
“For Konkan Culture I used MDF for a woodcut that draws on Konkan themes. I adopted a mass-oriented approach rather than detailed, realistic carving, pulling around four to five colour impressions across three days. I chose a slightly unusual palette to better match the mood and cultural tone of the piece.”
- Theme
- Fishing life in Konkan
- Material
- Woodcut on paper
- Size
- 48 × 30 cm
- Year
- 2025
- Edition
- 2
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- Devrukh College of Art and Design
- From
- Ratnagiri
- Code
- RC-598
