Art
Drawing started in childhood – copying cartoons and caricatures from The Hindu: Scotty, Donald Duck, political caricatures of Brezhnev and Chernenko. I was teased mercilessly for drawing a lion with the face of a girl. This did not discourage me.
Through my years at BITS Pilani, I stayed close to art – mural projects, 3-D constructions in steel wireframes and papier-mâché, a peer group that taught more technique than any class. Art at BITS also forged some of the closest friendships of my life. A signature mosaic style emerged from those years. Inspired by a senior I idolized: colors placed next to each other without blending, an overall gradient creating the illusion of light and form. The other developed later – shapes revealed through color differences, interiors filled with freehand pen designs.
During my time in the UK, I discovered David Bellamy, a great nature painter whose work I admire. His book on landscape watercolors is the foundation that still shapes my technique.
Other shorter influences include a few months of watercolor lessons with a local artist in Pune, and some community college drawing and painting classes in California. In 2008 and 2009, I held my own exhibitions in Pune.
Watercolors are my first love – the blending of colors and the translucent beauty feel simply magical. These days I dabble in acrylics (still unlearning some of my watercolor habits!) and have also started exploring digital art with a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium I received as a birthday present a couple of years ago.
The full body of work – the mosaic pieces, the penwork, the nature studies – is coming soon to greenibis.art.
