BENGALURU: When artist Suvigya Sharma first took up miniature painting as a career a decade ago, he recalls that there were not many artists in India doing so.
“It is a perishing art and very rare,” says Sharma, who recently held his debut exhibition in Bengaluru, where he is showcasing a collection of 127 artworks representing this 2,000-year-old art form. Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, for whom he did a portrait, was present as well.
His first impression of the city is the need for awareness about his art forms.
“People were awestruck by some of my work, and it took me by surprise that they were not aware of the concept of refined Tanjore artworks,” says Jaipur-based Sharma, adding that in comparison to New Delhi and Mumbai, where the art scene is contemporised, Bengaluru is still to get there.
Sharma, who has practised the traditional fine miniature art since childhood, under the tutelage of his father, fine artist R K Sharma, is displaying works that he has been working on for the last 17 years. A typical day includes eight hours of painting, which he even follows during holidays.
“I just feel incomplete when I don’t paint. I carry some of my items, so I can paint anytime I feel like it. It really keeps me going,” says Sharma, whose modern-day depiction of Tanjores is made on handmade canvases, painted in freshly prepared vegetable dyes, gilded in 24-carat gold, using a technique meticulously practised under a magnifying glass.
It’s no wonder then that his collection is found in the residences of the most elite families. Sharma, who has restored heritage projects like the Jaipur Palace, presented his paintings to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, industrialists like the Ambanis, Ruias, Binanis, cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, actor Priyanka Chopra and singer Justin Bieber.
“I have completed a portrait of president Ram Nath Kovind and will hand it over soon,” says Sharma, who says he is the only artist in the country whose paintings are done with actual 24 carat gold taking the shape of ‘refined Tanjores’. “I am highly influenced by the works of Raja Ravi Varma,” says Sharma, pointing out that the difference between Tanjore works and refined Tanjores is the detailing and intricacy in the latter.” He goes on to add that a typical Tanjore work is thick and one can’t see much detailing and intricacies.
The artworks are on display till January 10 at Gallery Navrathan, MG Road.