On Sunday 25th September 2018, we visited a gurudwara- a place of prayer for the Sikh religion, this one is called Guru Maneyo Granth Gurudwara, and inside there was a temporary exhibition of artwork that represented stories and tales of what had formed and built their religion. We had asked around and found out that the person who made the paintings lives in Canada. We were intrigued and that’s why we thought of going to this arts exhibition. 

It was a collection of paintings by a Canadian artist Kanwar Singh. The artist took his time to create very detailed artwork to describe the events that happened in his religion. His paintings, on the lives of the Gurus and iconic Sikhs, left quite an impression on my mind. 

Also his artwork is outstanding, everything had been done with precision and accuracy which made it also look real and life like. He mostly used canvas and oil for the huge life size paintings. He used dark tones of the colour to make them look appealing, exciting and he described the events which happened in the Sikh history very well. 

Starting from beginning of the exhibition until end, the impression built by the paintings and artists was huge. I now know more about Sikh’s gurus, religion and history of Sikh religion through the paintings and the all art work seem quite real and mesmerizing. 

I learnt that use of oil colour on canvas with dark tones can create quite dramatic effect and also that artists use lots of different techniques and different things to get an effect like some of them used wax to cover their paintings to give it a shine. I however, couldn’t meet the artist as he wasn’t present on the day when he visited so I don’t exactly know the techniques he used for creating his art work. But all his artwork was a visual treat.

I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition along with my family. Along with some art techniques, I also learnt about Sikh gurus and their historical events which was a bonus. Overall it was a good experience for me. I felt that the art exhibition went very well in the quality of the paintings and the writing next to them. I felt very surprised at the detail of them all, and I would definitely recommend this to my friends, as they would like it too! In fact, I have never seen any exhibition with paintings done on religious topics and with such remarkable details. All were very lovely, amazing details and beautiful colours were used.