Knowing oneself
Artwork and story from Dr Gopi Ghosh
At the ripe age of sixty years I thought my active life was over till I am bitten by the bug called ART. Photography was there in small way but the charm of creating ones own form of aesthetics pestered upon. I started some small pencil and ink work and slowly started playing around with the left-over colours and pastels of my children- now grown up. However, with every attempt disappointment followed, as what I intended to draw was challenging at the beginning ( as I was unsure of the medium or the methods) somehow ecstatic at the middle ( at times it was just about to manifest what I intended) and then disappointment (as the end result would be disastrous). Still I stuck on making sundry work and sharing them occasionally – sometimes liked by sympathetic friends on my facebook page.
Intuitively I leaned over the internet and have many tips and tutoring – however those were piecemeal and not comprehensive. Three years back I was able to discover Newark Drawing Academy and managed to send one drawing piece to one of the competitions announced by the Drawing Academy – superbly led by Vladimir and Natalie. It was an ink drawing of a Rajasthani nomad family with their cart and utensils and donkey. Surprisingly it won the competition in 2017.
My life seemed to have got a positive direction and meaning. I was given, courtesy to the Drawing Academy, a whole set of instructional videos – each one dealing with particular subject that I needed to learn to be able to make any sensible art work. On the way I have faced many challenges- human anatomy is the most terrible one (I always criticised by my daughter who is an anatomy professor about what part of my work is not according to the normal shape, size or proportion). I am learning various media, acrylic, water cooler and now Oil, as well as different forms of canvas- plastic cardboard, cement tiles, marbles or wooden board (or for that matter anything as a part of my aesthetic recycling obsession) and now on paper or formal canvas. I am chastised by an Art professor for merely wasting my work on non-durable materials which have poor shelf life, get-up and low public perception and value. So I now decide to work on formal canvas and only with quality paint materials. Themes I like are nature, animals, landscape and myriad forms of emotions captured in day to day life.
Today I feel restless if I don’t do any painting on any day – in any form.
I want to win the course as I realised that art is an endless journey of learning, improvising, and discovering the multifarious dimensions of the wonderful realm of humanity and the world – full of challenge, fun and contentment.
Besides it is one of the finest recognitions of one’s art work – objectively assessed on the intrinsic quality of the work by art lovers and experts around the world.
My latest work is on myself – a self portrait on oil on canvas (40*42 cm) as they say its the most difficult task to know and depict oneself. Its also about understanding and rediscovering the self.
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