New Delhi, Aug 1 : "Age no bar" -- the saying stands true for artist Haroon Khimani who at 81 is still passionate about his painting and proves that there is no expiry of his imagination which he pours over on canvases.
The octogenarian artist began his career in 1959 when he was just 23 years old. After 58 years of experience, making a stroke with brush on the canvases come naturally to him and so does the choice of colours.
"At this stage of my life, I don't spend too much time thinking about themes, they come naturally to me now. My inner self guides me how to begin a painting, which colours to choose, to make it a simple water colour or put acrylic or oil painting. If started, I make sure that I complete the painting within time," Khimani told IANS in an interview.
There was a time when Khimani left painting because he realised that living as a self-employed painter was hard. "I left because in those days when came out of my college and stepped into professional scene, public response towards artwork was limited," the artist noted.
To earn a better livelihood, Khimani shifted base to Dubai where he drifted away from painting and focused to designing and found success. But it was painting that always attracted him and resumed it in 2005.
"Now more at peace I am as am back to painting," he exclaimed.
Over so many years, Khimani has witnessed many changes in painting. He thinks that technology has affected the thinking process of artists and brought in many changes in the way art work is performed and presented.
"Mechanism is a part of creative act not art itself. In art, digital paintings came into existence which were not a dream of 20 years back. These days artists need to know computer well than painting. Our Indian art is at the pick on world arena. Collage and digital creative work is much developed and at its zenith," Khimani pointed out.
Not just in India, Khimani has also explicitly showcased his art work in the US and found that there are many differences in the way art is approached in West and India.
"In India, audiences often ask artists about the art-work which they don't understand, whereas in West, they never question. Rather, they try to understand the observe paintings; they praise and equally express their dislike. In western countries, the audience is immune to absorb the viewing of paintings. They know what is art and what is painting and how to enjoy colour. But in India, knowledge of art is limited to only connoisseurs, critics, art collectors and experts," the artist commented.
When asked which genre of painting is still left for him to explore he replied: "I want to do some ethnic painting because it was for a temporary phase I did during my stay in the US. But I want to do abstractions. I have to form my own idiom, my own idea."
The artist's collection titled "Descent", a collection of contemporary retrospective visual art exhibition, is being showcased at Mumbai's Jehangir Art Gallery from August 1 to 7.
