Saturday 20 / April / 2024
The world of art is a vast space of imagination, creativity, expressions, and colours. There are different ways, forms, and styles in which you can pursue your artistic passion and Oman-based creative director Sandesh Rangnekar has found his own way to make his art form distinct in a land where it is so easy to get inspired to pick up your brush.
Whenever I would visit an art exhibition or see some amazing paintings, I would appreciate and admire the colours, texture, design of the artwork while paying no heed to the medium it was done in as they were all usually just a normal canvas. But when I saw Sandesh’s artwork for the first time, I couldn’t stop ogling his work, not just because of the intricately done painting but mainly because of the medium it was done in. A perfectly done portrait of a woman minutely done on a peepal leaf is what I saw. Sandesh is a brilliant artist who chooses different mediums to make his work unique. Peepal leaf painting is an ancient Indian art. The canvas itself is a leaf, which you don’t get in store. Painting on a peepal leaf is not an easy task and requires a lot of patience and commitment as it takes atleast 45 to 60 days to get the leaf paint-ready and there of course, is no room for errors.
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Sandesh started painting at a very young age getting all the inspiration he needed from his father. As a child he would be hesitant to show his works to anyone as he didn’t believe he was good enough. “Once I did something which he (Sandesh’s father) really liked when I was 9 or 10. I did oil painting. He was very impressed and bought me paints and brushes. And that’s how it started,” Sandesh remembered. Being an ardent learner, it didn’t take him much time to get good at it. However, after college Sandesh stopped painting and lost touch with it. After a break of 15 long years, when in Oman, he decided to pick up his brush again. But this time he wanted to make his art special, one that would stand out from the crowd of talented masterpieces that people around him were capable of producing. He started peepal leaf painting.
“Since this art is new here, I thought let me try my hand on it. Basically I wanted to promote this art because no one does it here. Doing portrait on peepal leaf makes it more special as it is more difficult and challenging. And I like taking up challenges,” he said.
Sandesh had made many peepal leaf paintings that he ought to be proud of. From a series on His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said that shows him in different stages of his life, to a portrait of Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, and even the portrait of Mona Lisa, which for him was very difficult as the job of perfecting her smile was indeed a task.
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Apart from peepal leaves, Sandesh extends his art skills by carving on squid bones, something he stumbled upon while strolling on the beach. He found the texture and feel of the squid bone very interesting and decided to try it out. There are no special carving tools that he uses and this is no conventional form of art. He makes his own tool each time and sculpts his thoughts away taking his own time. Soap is another medium he uses to express his thoughts in the form of art and the intricacy with which he works leaves me stunned everytime I look at his work.
Sandesh continues his quest on finding new medium and objects in which he can carve his imagination and creativity and provide the world with something precious to just watch and admire. —[email protected]
