This is artist Ronel Chakma Manik's maiden solo exhibition in the capital. Earlier he took part in several group displays besides two solos in Chittagong. Entitled Tribal Lives, the exhibition was inaugurated on November 18 by Elisabeth Yearbury, the Commercial Attaché, Embassy of France. Veteran artist and Director of the Institute of Fine Arts, Dhaka University, Abdus Satter, and Kanak Chanpa Chakma attended the inauguration ceremony.

What one is struck with at the very first glance of Ronel's art works is his use of bright colours. Red, blue, yellow and a lot of green abound in Ronel's paintings as if his canvas has been dipped in these primary colours. And surely that significantly shows his inspiration of the freshness of the nature of the hilly regions where Ronel has grown up.

The exhibits somewhat do justice to the title of the display. Ronel has caught moments of pleasures of the ethnic people as they go to work, return home, in the moments of brooding and, of course, in the festivals. The exhibits, however, do not include subjects that project the darker sides of the life in the Hill Tracts. This is probably because of the artist's deep rooted faith in optimism.

Ronel Chakma's choice of medium is also quite clever. Most of the works are in water colour--a medium that is clear and fresh in itself, a faithful one to portray the real freshness in the nature. The dark colours of heavily grown trees on the hills, transparent river water reflecting the bluish white sky, the foamy haziness of the distant falls and the bright traditional costumes of tribal people--everything acquires the clarity of the water colour. Paintings like Return, Bouddha Sannyasi, Gohotya are washed in that limpidness.

A few paintings, however, are done in oil. The piece called Sadness is one of them that presents an old woman casting her eyes sideways. The frail body sitting in a huddled posture, the wrinkles across the face of the woman project the sad experiences in her long life. The surrounding colours--mostly mingled with gray and brown--are perfect to the mood of the picture.

Ronel's paintings are like stilled moments of life rather than depiction of ongoing activities. One may be critical that his works do not portray the dynamism of the hill-life. Nevertheless, this 'stasis' depicts one aspect of the artist's vision--he wishes to capture those joyous moments on his canvas before they are threatened by the onslaughts of crude reality.

The show continues till November 24.