Sachin Naik always maintained that painting must be learnt in presence of nature because that will help our work or painting talk better,” says Mahendra Kondekar, who was associated with the renowned artist for many years. Naik passed away on December 6 last year and his students from Sunday Artist Group have organised a four-day art exhibition, in his memory, at Darpan Art Gallery, Patrakar Nagar from March 7. The exhibition will have Naik’s art work and also paintings done by members of the group.
“We will display 25-30 paintings of his and eight paintings done by us. These are mostly landscapes done in water colour medium. The paintings were executed on the location, amongst nature,” he adds. Talking about Naik’s association with Sunday Artist Group, Kondekar says, “It’s an informal group and we go to Savitribai Phule Pune University every Sunday to paint. He used to teach us water colour painting there. I have been associated with him personally, for last 8-9 years. I used to pick him up from his residence and we would travel together to the university.”
Over the years, the group learnt lot many things from the artist. “There was so much to learn from Naik. He was internationally renowned artist, his work had been displayed in various international magazines. Despite all this, he was so down-to- earth. He would share his knowledge about water colour paintings with us and did not keep anything to himself. When you work with someone so closely, you tend to pick up traits of that person. We learnt transparency while studying under Naik,” informs Kondekar.
Reminiscing more about Naik, the artist says, “He was attached to some of his works but he always said, ‘When you are displaying your paintings, you should not worry if they sell or not. You should enjoy the process of painting. Once it’s done, you should not think about it’.”
Besides teaching his students the art of watercolour painting, Naik also gave tips on sketching. “He believed that one should concentrate on creating a perfect drawing first. He would tell us to work on the basics, perfect our drawings and say that composition is primary — colouring comes at a later stage. ‘Do not rush to choose water colours immediately’, he would advise,” quips Kondekar.
Naik also took his students to places, villages in and around Pune, like Wai where he would give them a demonstration of his work.
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Catch the exhibition from March 7 to 10 at Darpan Art Gallery, Kala Chhaya campus, opp Vikhe-Patil School, from 11 am to 7.30 pm
