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I feel the most effective way to learn to paint is to experiment.
Most essential thing to do is to enjoy it.
I have no formal education in Art, but I was always keen on
painting. Soon after my graduation (in Physics) I decided to make
painting my full time activity. More than the media, subject matter
of the painting is important to me. I started painting in Acrylics
and watercolours and
now also use oil and mixed media to achieve the desired result.
Though I finish my paintings indoors the sketches done on the
field form the basis for them. Nature is my inspiration and she
never stops surprising me. The best experience is when I draw outdoors with no constraint of producing the best; without
deliberate effort to 'get it right'. It's the purest form of
expression of my emotions. Experience of sitting at the edge of a
stream or in a thick forest long enough to 'vanish' and become the
part of the surroundings is probably recognizable to a lot of us.
The bird activity which has ceased with your appearance on the scene
initially, starts after you become a part of the ambience. Its a
wonderful feeling of acceptance into their world, which can get
addictive.
Nobody in my family is an artist and I probably inherited these
genes from a distant grandfather who did beautiful full-sized
pencil-portraits, which we still have. For as long as I remember I
have been drawing and painting - on the walls of my house, in my
school books. I drew birds, animals and human figures in a very
stylized form then. The Indian art forms like the Kalamkari, Warli
and the Indian Miniature form of painting were the first
inspirations. I did a lot of drawing more than painting initially.
Copying the impressionists like - Edgar Degas, Toulouse Lautrec,
Monet was a great education in itself.
Some of my favorite wildlife painters are - Lars Jonsson, Raymond
Harris-Ching and printmakers like Andrea Rich.
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