“I will give you a pounding stick, you have to draw eyelashes with it,” was the stern command from my first art teacher, the 70-year-old Sri Jaya Varma. A product of Royal College of Art, London, he taught me European style academic painting, especially portraiture before I went to an art school for a formal qualification.
He was a meticulous teacher who insisted on a methodical approach and application of proper technique in painting. The colours had to be placed in a particular order on the palette, the palette knife had to be used to mix colours, the canvas set at a particular angle and even the wiping rag had to be kept within easy reach. For nearly two years, he taught me all these rules and techniques in strict order.
I was working on a portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru during the last days of my training with him. I had to apply finishing touches to the eyebrows and could not find the zero brush that is used for such applications. He asked me what I was looking for. When I told him, he picked up a wide, flat brush, dipped the corner into the paint and with one deft stroke finished the eyebrows. With that one stroke, he nullified every rule he had taught me.
If we want to write, we have to learn the language, how to form a word and with words form sentences. Then one learns the grammar to coin a proper sentence. This training in language technique is mandatory. But when one becomes a creative writer, more often we tend to discard many of these rules to give individuality to one’s creation. In art, the learning is much more strenuous as the materials, methods and applications are multi-fold. But when a creative artist handles a work, most of these set rules take a back seat. Innovation becomes paramount. And it is through these innovative methods that new means of expressions develop.
Most artists who have created their own style constantly experiment with the medium and derive their own methods while not compromising on quality. It is only such artists who contribute to the growth of the art scene.
During my younger days, while working on graphic printmaking at Garhi community studios in Delhi, I worked with some of the great stalwarts of Indian contemporary art and observed their methods and approach to work. Most of these artists are trained in academic methods and materials. Manjit Bawa used to paint highly stylised figures of humans and animals in a way that reminds one of the approach to miniature painting. The great tantric painter Gulam Rasool Santosh used to apply colours that create a kind of glow which is an essential part of the theme and approach. J Swaminathan used to apply a lot of masking tapes to areas he wanted to isolate. I had not seen any other artist do that till then. Though each one of them had an approach of their own, they never compromised on quality or artistic integrity for the sake of style.
The great Leonardo Da Vinci constantly experimented with materials and methods till his last days. While Italians had developed a highly repayable method of Fresco painting, Da Vinci preferred to use his own experimental method for painting his world-renowned The Last Supper. Though he had problems with that method he stuck to it. This created certain problems leading to deterioration of the great work. The great Jackson Pollock while creating his famous Blue Poles dripped paint directly from the can to the canvas. A method probably nobody had thought of till then. This application has given the work an extra, sculptural dimension. It is perhaps such creative innovations that built art as a powerful tool of social change.
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