He was four when he picked up a painting brush for the first time. Now with 25 group shows and seven solo shows to his credit at 72, artist R C Sharma stands in his latest digital painting exhibition, which he calls the “Visual Journey”.
Deeply inspired by nature, he translates his experiences through visual art onto the canvass. And his latest fixation is digital art. “I taught at the College of Fine Arts, JNTU for about 35 years and then retired. I used to paint quite often before I started working as a teacher. In that gap as a teacher, there was so much evolution in the field of art, that I was amazed. When I got back to painting myself, digital art was gaining prominence and it took me some four to five years to learn and control the mouse,” Sharma explained.
He developed his style of mixed media, through a computer brush. “I develop everything on the computer. Right from developing the form, filling the colour, final touches and then printing it on canvas. Once I get the output, I also do some final touches manually on the canvass,” he explained.
Born in Rajasthan and brought up in Hyderabad, his current exhibition Visual Journey is an account of everything he has witnessed. “It is my vision that I am transferring onto my canvas.”
About 30 really colourful frames show glimpses of the many nuances of nature. “They are essentially colourful and vibrant. It is all about how every small segment of nature has a story to tell. It can be its form, presentation or just its mere existence that fascinates me,” Sharma elaborates. A fan of digital printing, Sharma belives that digital printing is in fact more impactful than real paintings.
“The best thing about digital art is its importance for detail. And also one advantage you have is that you can always re-do any particular shade or line,” he says.
Happy, retired and busy is his present state of mind. “I am very happy when I am painting. Once you retire, it is difficult to kill time and not feel guilty about not doing anything. Now I have work and I am loving what I am doing. I am not worried if my paintings get sold. Everyday is a new day,” he quips, signing off on a philosophical note.