All-weather art
Aditi Tandon

WHAT would an artist like better than to display his works and get appreciation for them? And what more could he aspire for than to have his works outlive him?

Sanjay, a celebrated artist from the small town of Bhiwani in Haryana, hopes to meet this aspiration with his creations. Their beauty and sheen, he claims, will not fade for a couple of centuries.

This 32-year-old artist, whose works adorn the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, is known in art circles for his technically sound works, which are made with natural products like mehndi (henna), gheru (a red powder used on ceremonious occasions), kajal, and haldi.

Throwing light on his technique, Sanjay says, "While I was doing my Masters in Fine Art (MFA) at Jamia Milia Islamia, I used to devote a lot of time trying to understand why some of the great art works had lost their sheen over a period of time. I studied books and research papers on how colours could be best used and with what techniques so that the art work lives long. After years of extensive research on colours, I have now created works that will not lose their beauty for about 500 years. You may find my claims vain but I am telling the truth.Unfortunately, I cannot live long enough to prove this assertion. My works, however, shall speak for themselves."

The first thing Sanjay does to ensure that his works live long is stretch out his canvas on the ground instead of hanging it to the easel. "Besides allowing colours to penetrate deeper into the canvas, it exposes the canvas to full light. My studio walls are sans colour. They are simply white washed so that colours from the surroundings don’t get reflected on my canvas. I also paint the exposed part of the canvas to add strength to it. The sides are also painted so that they don’t tear off. To achieve permanence, I use earth colours with egg or basic colours like red, yellow and blue. I strictly avoid black and Persian blue, which tend to overshadow other colours. Out of the range of the whites available, I use detaining white the most because it is derived from seashells and is the strongest. The other whites – zinc white and Titanium white — cause cracks on the canvas," explains Sanjay.

From technique to style, everything about Sanjay’s collection is unique. In about 35 self portraits, some as large as 8 foot by 40 foot, which had been displayed at Government Museum in Chandigarh recently, he managed to keep the facial expression constant but depicted feet and hands in different ways. "I am the narrator of my body. I am the poet of my soul," remarks this painter, whose portraits express his physical and spiritual self.

This poet of the soul has quite a following even at this young age. He has about 20 awards to his credit.