From Brush to Knife: My painting journey

 

I was born in Konkan, a place you wouldn't be able to recreate even if a million hands came together to sprinkle beauty everywhere. It's creeks and mountains, coasts and lush green fields became a part of my life. I grew up watching it all. This miraculous natural wonder has had a deep impact on my mind, and it reflects on my canvas when I use my brushes.

 

Ever since I was a little kid, I developed a strong bond with this land. I had no intention of becoming an artist or had never imagined that I would grow up to be one. In fact, I wasn't raised in an environment where one could even think of getting an education or having a career in art. But in deep retrospect, I realise that the artist within me was alive even then, and I had never acknowledged him. All my hobbies, games and activities only revolved around art.

 

Even today, I can't enjoy the man-made world. Connecting with nature is my go-to meditation. It's what gives me strength and it empowers me face all my troubles. It gives off a unique, positive energy.

​

Being alone is crucial to this process. You bring a man into the picture and he mutilates nature like nothing else. This is why you will never see any hint of a human being anywhere in my paintings. What I love to show are all the marvelous shades of nature, their soothing effect, their flows and the enthralling game of light and shadow.

 

The things we see and experience influence us to a degree we do not understand. My initial paintings would often depict objects such as buffaloes, tribes, village houses, paddy fields, and seacoasts. I would otherwise draw anything but it was these things that I would thoroughly enjoy painting.

 

The knife soon began accompanying my brush strokes. The technique rapidly grew on me. I created innumerous works with this knife. To apply bold patches, thick paints and maintain the delicate balance of colours, while appeasing the eyes of the beholder was quite a task. The real challenge was showing the depth of the painting with colours.

 

Taking inspiration from colours in the nature that soothe the most inner corners of our mind and cheer us up, I always employ a painting technique that can give the spectator a blissfully calm experience. I use my knife to apply thick layers to create a three dimensional effect in my painting. Often, the colours will gel with each other on the canvas, or sometimes on the palette itself, paving the way for aesthetics of the painting to blossom on their own.

 

When nature is company, everybody will let their deepest emotions out. I try to do the same with my paintings.

 

The reflections in water, different shapes in the mountains and valleys, the ever changing, unfathomable sky, the clouds with their alluring shapes and hues, all keep calling out to me.