KOCHI: Sometime in 2000, while working as a visual designer for a company in Hyderabad, 46-year-old Hari Das travelled to the US on an official trip. He fondly remembers visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City — a pilgrimage that was important considering his penchant towards art from a young age. Over the next two decades, Hari would paint, although scarcely, owing to his busy work schedule. That was until the lockdown which in hindsight was a blessing in disguise for the artist in him.
Last year alone, Hari was able to create a body of work larger than his corpus spanning many years. He also found his niche style. Hari’s Instagram is populated by intricately-detailed architectural sketches that range from recreations of quaint village chapels to grandiose buildings situated across the world.
“Earlier I would create large-scale paintings and each project would take a lot of time. That stopped me from painting regularly. Eventually I realised that there were gifted artists already doing that sort of work so it was important for me to find something unique. What I do now comes naturally to me and it doesn’t take much time to finish one work. I am able to complete around two or three a week,” says Hari, native of Pampakuda.
His trip to the US bestowed Hari with another experience that now evidently informs his artistic preoccupation. “At quite a young age, I got a chance to travel abroad. It was quite thrilling to see all the skyscrapers in New York and other cities. Also, I had the chance to visit interior parts of the US, where you find really picturesque houses that are perhaps a century old. I have always had an affinity to architectural structures. I think if they were animate beings, they would have the best stories to tell.
I also figured that I am better at drawing geometric shapes rather than figures,” says the Chennai-based self-taught artist who runs his own company called Pixint which engages in user interface (UI) design projects.Hari’s current repertoire of sketches traverses the fairy-tale like French countryside, the colossal religious monuments in Italy as well as the colonial landmarks of Mumbai.
While he takes reference from the pictures available on the internet, Hari plays with perspective, surroundings and even colour to make the art his own. Although most of the sketches themselves are monochrome pen-on-paper renderings, the ever so minimal and effortless touch of colour is seen in the background. “I wanted to add something more to the sketch after it was finished. Instead of coloring all the elements, I decided to highlight one part and the background seemed like a good idea considering I could also add the effect of light and shadow.
I took inspiration from fellow artists on Instagram, eventually zeroing in on shades of blue and green which are predominant in most of my works,” adds Hari. Determined to create more works in the same strain, Hari hopes he can continue his artistic pursuits. “I have given myself five years and in this time, I want to be able to amass a respectable and sizable collection of work. And of course the ultimate aim would be able to exhibit them.” Find Hari on Instagram @knhdas