Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
His canvases are here to stay
L ucknowite Shyam Verma’s paintings are so real that they establish an instant bond with viewers. He is a realistic painter who graduated in commercial art more than two decades ago. Turning to realistic paintings, Verma then confined himself to his room for around five years to paint what he wished to.
“I am back from ‘tapasya’ of all these years where I was just painting what I wanted to. Since I graduated in commercial art in 1993, I was working for survival but these five years I remained cut off from social circles and commercial working to follow my passion. We faced monetary crisis during the period but without sacrifice it was not possible,” the famed artist tells HT City.
His painting exhibition ‘Seeing is Believing’ opened at Lalit Kala Academy in Aliganj on Saturday.
He calls his work ‘mann ki bhadaas’. “I studied at the Arts College and had since been doing commercial art for publicity material. But, making portraits was something I always cherished. The first few portraits that I made were of Indira Gandhi and Gabbar Singh. Since then I made many portraits including of Mayawati, Dr BR Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and converted Maharani Gayatri Devi’s line art into painting,” he tells.
His portrait of Mayawati, with others leaders, finds place in the memorials made by the ex-chief minister alongside the VIP Road. Gayatri Devi too appreciated his work. For the exhibition he has made portrait of chief minister Yogi Adityanath which is attracting visitors.
Verma is now working on his dream project in which he is reviving the culture and heritage of Lucknow through paintings.
“This project is still incomplete. I have made 12 paintings of 18th and 19th century Awadh and will be making 10-12 more paintings on it. Most of them are inspired by the pictures of that period and I have used colours that would have been in that era after a lot of research and talks with historians.”
Varanasi and other cities also feature in the heritage paintings made by Verma. “If I have painted a temple, I have used life in the foreground to give a perspective to the landscape. I hope that my work on Awadh takes a shape of art gallery and I don’t intend to sell these heritage paintings,” he tells.
He was honoured by former President the late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2006. Before that, ex-UP governors Surajbhan and Vishnu Kant Shastri also feted him.
Verma’s married daughter is also a painter while his son works with an event firm in Pune. His wife Sunita does social service. “Our needs were less so I was able to follow my passion and survive on bit of commercial work here and there. I also opened an institution in that period but that too closed down.”
As a realistic painter, his focus is all on natural looks and expressions. “This is an era of abstract painting which I don’t know. I have done commercial painting for survival all these years. But now I want to just follow my passion and I am hungry for more work,” he says.
these five years I remained cut off from social circles and commercial working to follow my passion. SHYAM VERMA ARTIST