Hyperrealism focuses on the suspension of the distance between reality and its imitative representation, interweaving the two so intricately that they are almost indistinguishable, what Jean Baudrillard puts as ‘the precession of simulacra’.
Today, we are going to introduce you to a young hyperrealist portrait Rangoli artist Pranesh Praveen Walawalkar. In an exchange with The Talented Indian, the artist reveals his journey from being a juvenile artist winning art competitions at school to a fully dedicated professional at the young age of 20. Pranesh is adept at pencil sketches and hyperrealist Portrait Rangoli.
A life of the artist starts at the cradle, develops over time and the seed of inherent talent nourished with the water of inspiration finally burgeons. Born and brought up in Mumbai, Pranesh’s artistic endeavor started early too. While at school he won many awards and strong support from family, friends and faculty because of the apparent talent in him. At an early age he became acquainted with hyperrealist Portrait Rangoli while visiting an exhibition where he was flabbergasted by “quality, realism, composition with theme creation, presentation of a subject and use of colours” in the displayed Portrait Rangolis. But the lack of resources and contacts at that point didn’t allow him to practice the same instantly. It was when he was 16 when he started practicing Portrait Rangoli. Still the issues like a lack of separate room for practicing Rangoli hurdled his way but he nevertheless crossed those hurdles.
While in college, getting connected with the internet and winning the second position in a Portrait Rangoli competition gave him a major push.
Inspiration is an omnipresent muse; you just want the eyes to see her. Blessed with this eye and curiosity to seek inspiration, Pranesh says that inspiration has revealed herself to him in various frames be it “surrounding, nature, others life, imagination, dreaming, and many different things some of them do not even exist”.
Pranesh is a self-motivated artist and believes that failure is a flavour that cannot be avoided. People who discourage career in art, maintains Pranesh, are a demotivating presence. However, he didn’t let philistines devour his love for art. In days when everything goes haywire, he tries to look at the positive and by looking at his past achievements he invests a belief in hard work. For him in the recipe of success hard-work is the quintessential ingredient and admits that he deals with the fear of failure by giving it his all.
Art is often believed as a form of meditation, just like meditation requires immense focus and a tremendous amount of strength and perseverance, practicing art requires the same amount of focus and strength. Pranesh tells us, that a Portrait rangoli takes 13-14 hours to complete and there have been times when he worked without any break to complete his task at hand. With his undivided attention dedicated to a piece of art for long hours and cathartic effect at the completion, he believes, indeed, art is a sort of meditation.
The simulacrum in his art carry an intrinsic message along with a wide range of themes like “social issues like child labour, recently COVID 19 awareness rangoli, inspirational portraits like Sachin Tendulkar, tribute to women in Indian Airforce, historical beauty showing ‘the grace of India sculptures’”. His art work is, thus, not only aesthetically pleasing but also has a didactic core.
Pranesh believes that anyone even without an artistic background can succeed in becoming an artist just by pursuing their passion with utmost patience and perseverance. Developing skills in art by learning and knowing more, according to him, is important.
At last, Pranesh leaves a message for all the young art enthusiasts and people in general to be patient for the things unfold at their own pace, to be perseverant because hard work has no alternative, to be motivated and to support other artists as well. He maintains that people can support an artist by sharing her/his work and by hiring them as and when required.
Artists create art for the upliftment of the society and they deserve support from the society in return as well.
