Singh brothers present ‘Shabd Kosh’

The works of these 47-year-old twins are plain, unpretentious, down-to-earth paintings of life in East Indian families in Trinidad, and in this exhibition devoted to their parents, life as it was 20, 30 or more years ago.

“Threshing Rice” is full of energy, an impression rather than a realist painting of the seasonal tasks of separating the precious seeds from the stalks.

“Relaxing in the Hammock” shows a woman relaxing while watching, at a distance, the pot on the chula – the very pose portrays weariness, yet she is ever ready to attend to the food and fire if need be.

We get a closer look at the chula in “Cooking in a Chula”, the figure this time on haunches tending the fire under the family-sized pot.

One wonders about the man with the drum on the left in “Evening Walk”, and the umbrella – is it – behind him. One imagines grandmother with stick is leading the way while her daughters and grandsons walk beside their mother as the sky behind them is aflame as the sun sinks in the west.

“Maticoor, Two Nights Before the Wedding” needs no explanation from me apart from the fact that it is an impression bordering on the primitive of a family celebration.

Simplicity itself is “Mama Sitting On the Steps” – as she must have done many a time and oft, drinking a mug of tea or coffee or cocoa while taking a break in a hard day’s work looking after her family.

We see the older generation with grandchildren sitting outside in the yard in “Bapu Aur Ladkeiyan (Our Grandparents); perhaps grandpapa is telling the young girl a tale of the days when he was a boy while the twins and grandmother listen to his story.

“Shabd Kosh – an exhibition of the works of Parmana and Prabhudath Singh,” opened in Soft Box Studios on Sunday, October 23 to coincide with celebrations leading up to Divali on October 26. This exhibition continues in Soft Box until Monday, November 7.