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
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