'The Painted Verse'- Art meets poetry in new book

Poet Preeta Chandran has teamed up with artist Pankaj Kumar Saxena to bring out a collection of verses and paintings inspired by nature, love and life.
Compiled into a book, the "The Painted Verse" was launched here recently by Satyajeet Rajan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence, and attended by several notable artists and writers.
It was followed by a painting exhibition which showcased the works of painter Pankaj Kumar Saxena.
The exhibition saw the combination of works by young school students and the artist himself.
Noted author Keki N Daruwalla said poetry and painting complemented each other in the book and congratulated the poet, Preeta and the artist, Pankaj, for it.

The artists say it took them two years to compile the work of art.

"Pankaj used to read my blog and came across a poem called silver oak and got inspired. He painted a beautiful painting based on that. And similarly I saw some of his paintings and photographs and got inspired to write a poem based on them. So eventually after five or six such incidents, we thought to make a book out of it," says Preeta.
"We had our share of differences, sometimes her poem's essence was not portrayed by me sufficiently and sometimes my painting's were not captured by her, but worked together and came out with the final project," says Pankaj Kumar.

Upon asking his favourite piece out of the collection he says, "I have done a painting based on Nirbhaya, which may not be artistically my best work but the emotional involvement is huge".