REALISM

1. I was just 6 yrs old….when I visited my maternal Grandfathers house in Dhulia….i was so much attracted to the huge portrait of Shri Madhavrao Pawar….my mothers grandfather….in the huge hall….Diwan khana…..I kept on standing in front of the frame…which must be 6 times bigger to me …than.   Come to me…Mona …I will tell u his stories….said a heavy voice!....I looked back and  my grandfather…my moms Mamaji…who looked similar to the person in the picture…stood besides me with open arms.
2. His stories were …as if I was reading a book ….but none came to the point where an artist came …made Mr Madhavrao sit on the wooden carved chair and painted his portrait……I just kept waiting…but that episode just did not come.
3. In the mean while I was spotting differences and similarity between the father and sons face….dint know why but thought …that when ever this person is going to make his portrait….i am going to be their and be with the painter to tell him those differences.  
4. Those days….  Having a portrait of your family members in the house must be a mark of being in the high society I guess….everyone in my family had the honor to have a portrait…….
5. The second encounter with portraits was at my fathers ancestral house in Drayapur…Deshmukhancha wada …the eyes of the people in the portrait had such a  captivating glance.
6. The Tata house at Fort Mumbai was the third encounter of portraits….where I spent 2 full days amongst the great Gurus of the management world….The faces so bright and Brilliance oozing out!!
7. Amaaazing.!!
8. The first portrait I tried my hands on was of Mr JRD Tata.
9.  This takes diligent effort and layering of colors…painting, pondering, adjusting, looking again, and working toward the truth. As Giorgio Morandi (1889-1964) said, “You can travel the world and see nothing. To achieve understanding, it is necessary not to see many things but to look hard at what you do see.”
10. For over a hundred years we have been bombarded with realism, and expressing through portraits and still-life paintings…             ….
11. So many times there was a question on whether there is any need to paint a portrait in todays day when photographs can be blown up…
12. To answer to those who question the “value/purpose/point of  realism: I think that realism …well.. it is an attempt to recreate life. Does that make sense? It is, after all, what realism is about: to convey to the viewer a sense of something that is “more real than real life”. It gives a different HIGH !!..There’s something very satisfying in painting something that so accurately imitates life that people have to look twice to tell that it’s actually a painting and not a photo….hope to get to that level some day….
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