Artist Alfonz Jozef Pinheiro’s paintings are a tribute to the beasts of the wild

Alfonz Jozef Pinheiro’s exhibition of paintings, A Wild Life , captures the wild in playful, innocent strokes. Born and brought up in Munnar, Jozef says he always felt close to the forest and its beings. As a child, he used to draw, but never learnt art technically. Later, a job in Tata Tea, too kept him away from pursuing art seriously.

However, Jozef used his spare time to paint. The series on show was completed over a period of four years. “After I left my job and came to Kochi, I had a lot of time on my hands. Egged on by my wife, I decided to take up art seriously.

Most of the paintings are in acrylic. “It dries fast and is rather fuss-free,” says Jozef. A few have been done using mixed media. ‘The Outer Womb’ is one of the works that grabs attention. It shows a tiger holding her cub in her jaws. The yellow-orange skin of the tiger with the zig- zag black stripes creates a colourful portrait of the animal with her cub. In ‘Adolescent’, Jozef captures the curious face of a young giraffe as she sees the forest anew. ‘The Baffled Cheetah’ is another of the works where the artist has tried to portray the emotions of the animal. It shows a cheetah, its pink tongue stuck out of his mouth, disappointed and embarrassed after an unsuccessful chase.

The zebra series is one of the highlights of the show as it attempts to study the animal in its visual elegance; the white and black stripes offsetting the green background.

Jozef has also taken note of the action that takes place in the wild. In ‘Mountain Warriors’, he depicts two Nilgiri tahrs engaged in combat. Their interlocked curved horns evoke a spirit of competition. Another work, ‘The Kill’, focuses on the eye of a tiger that is concentrating on the movements of its prey. The harshness of the look reflects the ruthlessness of the act. ‘On Top of The World’, in mixed media, shows a squirrel climbing a tree.

Jozef is working on another series, ‘Winged Beauty’, on birds. The paintings will be done in acrylic and mixed media.

A Wild Life is on at Durbar Hall Art Gallery till May 15.