From cash counters to canvasses

Banking and painting are two entirely different worlds. But Milind Nayak, a city based artist, managed to make a neat shift from one to another. He worked in a Bank for seventeen years and moved from the number counting full time profession to canvasses and colours. 

As he sets the canvas on the easel, he winds back into the days when he did not paint at all and talks of the journey from there to where he is today. Meanwhile the palette gets ready with small squiggles of paint - blue, brown, violet and black. He chats and paints simultaneously. The colours are slapped on. The palette knife goes to work as another of Milind's leaf filled paintings takes shape.

Born in Udupi, Milind was into painting even as bank employee. "My parents wanted me to be a doctor. Though I used to mix with artists, I had no conventional grounding in painting." His job at the bank kept him on his toes. He shuttled between Manipal, Delhi and Bangalore. In Manipal he remembers attending a camp where he "really didn't paint much." It was in Bangalore that he met other artists such as S G Vasudev and Yusuf Arakkal. 

He recalls his days in Delhi, when he painted only on weekends. In fact he has depicted his experience in the Capital in his book, Parts of me. The book is a compilation of his work over the years. It features photographs, drawings, poems along with scribbles from the eighties onwards. He says "The days in Delhi were really productive. I slipped into photography between 1983 and 1993. Then my attention was on the colour copier.

He asks "Why not use technology if it offers new possibilities?" He had his first solo show of digital monoprints in 1996, which was a success. " It was a nice feeling to get back to painting. And I was painting full time." he says "I was discovered and the media focused on my work…I had become a butterfly! Can you see my wings?"

Milind paints in all media- acrylics, oils on canvas, oil pastel, soft pastel and even drawings in pen and pencil. Nature is the predominant theme in most of his works. One notices the profusion of leaves in green, yellow and brown. There is an occasional painting in red, yellow and blue as well. 

It is tough to imagine that these works of art are created with a palette knife. Milind never uses a paintbrush. "The knife is precise; It has a finality about the delivery of the stroke. Besides, it doesn't leave marks or bristles."

Milind feels strongly about the deteriorating environmental situation and the abuse of human rights. He believes that an artist has to be a good human being.

Excerpts from the article titled " From cash counters to canvasses" by 
Renuka Phadnis
The Hindu, Bangalore, May 13, 2002