The Open Studio / Almaa Solkar
Almaa Solkar
Still life
A horned skull, a glass jar and three days of carving
The skull is the colour of old turmeric on a wall.
Its horns point into a dark that has no corner.
A glass jar holds nothing but the shape of light.
Pale fruit waits at the edge of the table.
The cloth falls in long lines of grain, the wood still showing through.
Black rises from the floor and stops just short.
The work
Almaa Solkar is at Devrukh College of Art and Design in Ratnagiri. Still Life is a woodcut on plywood. A horned skull, a glass jar, pale fruit and dry twigs rest on a draped table. Solkar begins with a pencil sketch. The carving follows no fixed plan for three tones. Over three days Solkar pulls more than five colour impressions. The tones grow through carving and printing. The hardest choice is where the darkest values go. Solkar keeps testing and changing the block until the scene feels real.
In the artist’s words
“In Still Life I made a woodcut on plywood. I began with a pencil sketch and carved without strictly planning a three-tone structure. Over three days I pulled more than five colour impressions. My main challenge was choosing where to place the darkest values, so I kept experimenting and adjusting the block to make the image more realistic.”
- Theme
- Shadow and still objects
- Material
- Woodcut on plywood
- Size
- 49 × 30 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- 1
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- Devrukh College of Art and Design
- From
- Ratnagiri
- Code
- RC-597
