Birth of a painting

Long long ago, the famous Marathi writer, mostly satirist Mr Pu La Deshpande had wondered ‘Why XYZ becomes a station master at the station on odd railway line of Shenoli?’ Well is there really an answer? All Indians would attribute it to the fete. Is it or otherwise?

I wondered many a time, when none from my ancestral tree ventured anywhere near colours, brushes or any other art material, how come I developed an intense urge to draw odd lines on the canvas, and made it a reality in spite of being extremely busy in my profession. In a span of 40 years of practice as an Internist, I must have seen more than thousands of patients, having enough experience and material to write at least a few odd papers on many peculiar cases those I came across. But watching my colleagues literally doling out papers, mostly manipulating the observations, closely matching with what West has already come out with, and then just labelling it ‘Indian’ scenario, I felt, I just do not have it!

And then, not exactly out of blues, it happened. Colours started making rounds of my grey matter. Of course, it was there since childhood, in the form of getting cent per cent marks in most of the drawing classes, but to take it a concrete shape 20 years had to elapse. I tried my hand at oils when I was undergrad, painted few, but found it tedious as oils take longer time to dry though mixing and getting the correct shade is much easier than watercolours, other cheap option.

After a lull of about 25 years, circumstances practically forced me to take to colours again. My friend was instrumental in bringing back me in the fold. She presented me with art material worth in thousands and practically pushed me into it, this time though it was a different material, Acrylic and I fell in love with it.

The birth of a painting!

Why a writer writes? I too, so I can tell. The words take the form of an idea and almost take control of your brain practically leaving you sleepless in the bed because they keep on asking ‘What next?’ The words come lined up in sentences making the flow easier as you keep on delving deeper and deeper. And unless you jot it down that feeling of restlessness just keeps on lingering.

Painting too gives similar delivery pains, almost!

You chance to see a picture, a photograph, memory of passing as if through the dream is stored deep somewhere in the labyrinths, that suddenly surfaces and makes you see the picture being formed in your psyche, metaphorically and then really!

This one is actual photograph of Matheran taken from a distance. The mood of nature, about to go in fury has been caught on the camera so vividly that I had to paint it. The clouds posed the most problem. Forget the fury about to unfurl; mine looked like a cotton candy gone haywire. Layers after layer, shades after shades I tried, but to no avail. In the end, when about to give up on the painting, an idea struck me. I had acrylic spray cans. Covering the green part to be painted I gave two layers of spray, one grey and one light black from a distance and suddenly the clouds changed their attitude and started looking as if they are about to pour in a minute!

To bring the different shades of green on the paper too was another problem. The ‘You Tubes’ videos make it look so simple, but when you get at it, either the brush width is too broad or it just does not hold enough colour. Again after trials and trying I came somewhere near what I had envisaged!

Liberal but judicious use of spray cans got me what I had seen with the closed eyes. Here I used 3 media, Spray, acrylic tubes and simple sketch pens and the end result was phenomenal.The fog, the snow, the thin layer of ice on the blue waters, partially shaded blues skies, fern trees I loved doing it. It gives such a soothing effect to the eyes, that it almost calms down your agitated nerves!

I always longed to paint abstract human figures but did not know how to go about it. The background that has turned out so bright and vivid actually is the end result of many painting accidents. With a newfound fascination for sprays, I painted the upper half with light yellow almost creamish, mixing it with white, yellow, orange and red. And I realized, almost amounting to my folly that once you spray, you cannot mix the colours with the usual brushes, though shown on ‘YouTube’ practical.

After failed mixing with the brushes[ spoiling most of them in the end], I sprayed again. But over-spraying made the colours to drip like a leaky ceiling. In a hurry to stop the flow to reach the ‘Forbidden’[covered] area, I tried to wipe them off with cotton duster and lo, it made a distinct pattern of threads with free-flowing colours on the canvas that it took me though in absolute surprise, nonetheless, gave me something that was looking fascinating on the canvas. When young I was briefly in contact with the famous artist, painter B Prabha, so naturally, due to her influence, my human figures had to have long arms! Somehow I could not get the desired result with the brushes, so I mixed them with the tip of fingers freely. And was happy to have the eerie pattern on the torso. Rest was finished with sketch pens and I had given birth to a very distinct painting!