Love in dark shades
Artist Ramesh Panchpande, who displays his paintings in the city this week, depicts the feeling of love through the medium of charcoal.
His paintings depict the splendour and tranquillity of human nature and emotions. Ramesh Panchpande has an unreal ease and precision with his medium, charcoal. On display at Out Of The Blue, his paintings are vying for attention from guests who are otherwise focused on food.
Hailing from an agrarian family from village Nashirabad in Jalgaon district, Ramesh took to art at a very young age. His decision to pursue an art career brought him to Mumbai’s JJ School of Arts, where he studied fine arts.
However, it wasn’t charcoal art from the beginning for Ramesh. “I started with realistic oil paintings as a professional artist, and Rajasthani culture was the main subject that I followed,” he says. The artist depicts love in most of his paintings using charcoal at the exhibition. “I always try to show the love between couples in my work, and hence, most of my artworks in this exhibition portray just that,” he explains. Ask him why he uses charcoal to paint the colourful feeling of love, and the artist replies, “A piece of charcoal can express everything in the drawing. Spreading charcoal with the finger gives it a life with detailed shade and light.”
Furthermore, Ramesh elucidates that he always wanted to do something unique and different with his paintings and thus took to charcoal. Practice and hard work helped him master the medium. While many may expect charcoal to be challenging compared to other mediums, Ramesh feels otherwise. “Charcoal art is not difficult. It is all about knowing your charcoal piece well. When that is done, half the battle is won”, says the talented artist.
He elaborates, “First, one should put the rough sketch onto the main sheet of paper with a light pencil, darken it using charcoal, then spread it with a finger. This will give you the desired shade and light effect in your work. However, perfection takes time.” He then adds that once the sketch is made, the detailing work of eyes, ornaments, and the like follows.
The skilled artist has no specific count on the number of exhibitions he has held to date. Some have been held within the country, either solo or in a group with fellow artists, while others have been held abroad, repeatedly in countries like Dubai, Singapore, and the USA.
Ramesh has also used dry colour pastels, spray painting, and charcoal in his artworks. His artworks on display are priced between Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 2 lakh, depending on the medium and size.
Ask him about his future plans, and he says that he wishes to blend both spray painting and
charcoal art and continues to portray love between the couples in his work.