Mastering iron scraps to Mammoth Scraptures

Ilyas Ahmed, the artist who creates art from discarded nuts, bolts, springs, vehicle spare parts and domestic waste is giving the final touches to the arrangement before his first ever solo show in Bangalore Chitrakala Parishat.


Ahmed’s foray into the art world started as a hobby when he was in his teens. Over the years he has nurtured his passion after discovering his hidden talent during his tenure at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), being a welder there when he had joined at the age of 19.



Later on he joined Merck & Company, an oil exploration firm. During his long journeys in ships he used to spend several hours pursuing his dream as a lot of junk material for his artwork was readily available as scraps and waste in the ship.



“While working at Merck & Company, a co-worker encouraged me a lot and also taught a lot about how pieces of nuts, bolts, springs, cans and other scraps could be given form to get the shape of sculptures"


The most striking part of the whole process is that the sculptures are created with equal sense of balance, symmetry, proportion, choise of waste material that resembles various parts of the anatomy.


There are no loose joints, and I found few of the parts move like the doors of the cars and some wheels of the 2 wheelers.


Artist is very comfortable with size; he has crafted sculptures as small as tabletop models with equal intricacy and graduated to give life to the large sized or gigantic sci-fi characters.



These are about one to one and half feet tall scultpures excluding the stand.













The weapons, the scultpures hold need to be lifted by at least 2 persons due to the heaviness of the metal casted.



One of the artists most elaborate creations is his native American sculpture, a chiseled face, metallic costume and a weapon in hand, with a beautifully welded headgear making it stand out from the rest of the display.














“Although I have to spend around 10-12 hours a day in my workshop, chiseling and refashioning junk for my various models, it gives me immense satisfaction as I am not only turning out beauty out of waste, but also saving the environment from getting polluted,” Ilyas said.





There were 2 metallic horses with a stationary bunch of chains for tails on either side of a dog-headed alien, which according to him, his most elaborate creation, more than 10 feet tall, looming like a warrior.






Ahmed says ~ “I find wealth in the waste also. All my work have been handcrafted and sculptured with intricate assembling. I collect all the objects thrown away from various houses, garages and factories in Bangalore and use them for my artworks”










He has admirers in the US, Britain, Japan, Italy and Singapore and has sold artworks to them, so far selling around 150 of his sculptures outside India among the foreign shores.




The wheels of these vehicles were found to be free-moving and mechanical in function.



I found the artist, Ilyas Ahmed very simple down to earth person. He is now molding 12 children to be future designers in this field.

Annual Art Fair - Kolkata Lalik Kala Academy

Kolkata Lalit Kala Academy is always buzzing with art activities throughout the year, guided by Sidharth Ghosh. I was very fortunate to visit Kolkata at this piont in time to witness their annual art fair, which had exhibits of Terrakota sculptures, Ceramic sculptures, bronze casted sculptures, Graphic prints, Paintings and also few crafted leather pouches by Shukla Bhattacharjee.





Oil paintings by fellow artists who work spare time at the Lalit Kala were exhibited ranging from Rs 2000/- to Rs 15000/-




One of the ceramic sculpture of a naked woman



People admiring the pieces shown at the exhibits:



A lot of figurative works; bronze-casted sculpture, one lady with mobile crafted with cement and also terrakota works were for sale and exhibition.

Artist Shukla Bhattacharjee displaying her paintings on paper on one side along with leather crafted purses and pouches on the other side.


Few leather purses created by artist Shukla Bhattacharjee.

The print studio at the Rastriya Lalit Kala has very good facilities which artists make use to bring out their editions, here is Sidharth discussing finer aspects at the venue where prints were for sale.

Few graphic prints on display for sale and show


Atin Basak one of the most popular printmaker in Kolkata during the fair.

Aban Mela 2007 in Pictures!

As I entered the gate of Rabindra Bharati University on 18th Dec 2007, some students were involved fixing this banner to greet the public:

... slowly I proceeded on and to the right side of the compound wall a wooden installation of statue was glaring at the passersby(for a moment I mistook it for an actual student may be wearing a mask to frighten or practicing drama)!

This is a new building for performing arts which has come up this year, I was amazed and spellbound by the large murals executed on the walls of these hall and class rooms. They were nearly 10x15 feet.

Rabindranath Tagore is glorified on one of the murals among the 4 and one was depicting dance.







Next to the performing center building is the boys hostel and in between the hostel and the visual arts class room, is a lake where fellow students share their notes, gossip and other creative pursuits including love.

Mela Highlights: Separate stalls were put up by different department heads and this one is supervised by Parag Roy (Head of Graphic Department) to hang the calenders made by the students with 3 different etchings. Some of the calenders were made with serigraphs of teachers works like Parag and Paula Sengupta.

It was great pleasure to interact with an enterprising final year student from Iraq, Reyhani Akan who was in-charge of a stall to popularize "Ebru Painting" and encouraged onlookers to try using the technique and take out a print as final proof.

After the student volunteers boldly, the resulting artwork is showed in the end, and the joy you get to see on the face of the volunteer is wonder struck.

Here he convinced one of the popular staff (painting head) Nikhil Ranjan Pal to experiment, which the teacher hesitatingly tried after many coaxing.

I tried my hand on it and Reyhani wanted the artwork photographed after acknowledging that I had traveled all the way from Bengaluru to visit the mela.

Face tattoo was also done by some students for a paltry sum of Rs 10/- and one of the resulting face with tattoo ...

As we were getting ready for the closing dinner, I chanced to see a chameleon on the shutter of the sculpture department.
Overall I enjoyed the mela immensely bringing with me lots of memories in the form of lithographs, silkscreen prints, etchings, watercolor paintings, collages, hand-drawn picture postcards, trinklets made of kowde (type of sea shell)

Anish Kapoor - New British Sculptor

Anish Kapoor:

Born: Mumbai
Year: 1954
Relocated: UK in 1972
Study: Hornsey College of Art
& Chelsea School of Art
Now: Renowned International Sculptor

Represented Britain: Venice Biennale 1990
Recipient Turner Prize: 1991

Known for enigmatic sculptural forms that permeate physical and psychological space. His early works were attempts at capturing pure color by applying powdered pigment to blocks or simply heaping it on the floor.



Kapoor's more recent work encompasses a broad range of shapes, styles, and sizes.

Anish Kapoor is associated with 'New British Sculpture' a catch-all term used to describe young sculptors who emerged in the late 70s & 80s who showed renewed interest in using traditional materials. Sculpture is one of the most exciting artistic mediums in the right creative hands, the possibilities are endless.

Enjoy the 'public art' of today..............

Early works of his done in 1993
Sandstone
32" x 37" x 47"



TARATANTARA - 1999



MARSYAS - 2002



BLOOD CINEMA
2004
Acrylic & Steel
77.5" x 77.5" x 20"




"CLOUD GATE"
2004
Millennium Park, Chicago
Stainless Steel
66ft x 33ft











https://www.paypal.com/row/mrb/pal=YTWM97LBGJNBL

Top Indian Printmakers

Christ: 1963
Signed & dated lower left
Edition 100
Paper size: 21.5" x 15"

Female Nude: 1963
Signed & dated upper left
Edition 100
Paper size: 21.5" x 15"

Woman: 1963
Printed on coloured paper, with flecks of silver leaf.
Signed & dated lower left
Edition 100
Paper size: 22" x 14.5"

FN Souza was a brilliant and innovative print maker. His etchings and lithographs from the 1960s have only recently been re-discovered and make a very important contribution to the cannon of his work.

The father of modern lndian prints is generally acknowledged to be Bengal artist Somenath Hore, who worked and experimented widely with the medium after receiving preliminary guidance from another reputed artist, Krishna Reddy – who had in turn been initiated into the basic processes while working in the studio of master printmaker William Hayter

,

So Krishna Reddy is considered as one of the pioneers in the field of printmaking.

Sanat Kar experimented with intaglio printing and went further to take prints from nontraditional intaglio matrices like engraved wooden block and other synthetic surfaces.

An etching by Sanat Kar

In 1951, Kanwal Krishna from Govern­ment Arts College, Calcutta, went to Europe and in 1953 to Paris, there under the guidance of William Hayter, learnt the newly developed intaglio printing technique. In 1955 he came back to India and settled in Delhi. During 1957 he set-up his own press and started doing multicolor intaglio prints of colographic process. Kanwal’s prints created a sensation among his contemporaries because of its charismatic quality through highly embossed surfaces and luminous colors.

KG Subramanyan, has done a wide range of lithographic prints and folio in Santiniketan.


One of the prominent print-makers of 60s and 70s was Jyoti Bhatt, who had his training from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda between 1950-59. Jyoti Bhatt went to U.S.A. and learnt the technique of Intaglio in Pratt Graphic Center in New York. On returning to India in 1966, he devoted himself completely to Printmaking and created a working atmosphere in Baroda.

An outstanding contributor from Hyderabad is K Laxma Goud, who studied at Baroda under masters like K G Subramanyam and has played an important role as a printmaker especially in the field of intaglio etching and aquatints.

The most significant women artist among printmakers is Anupam Sud, who has used the intaglio process in all its variations-etching, dry point, combining it with the viscosity process and wiping technology. Restraint is the keynote of her work. While her sympathies and concerns are often feminist, a recurring theme in her work is the universal human predicament.

The popularity of printmaking among contemporaries has gained through Institutional system; Department of Printmaking, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. The department has continuously been enriched by individual and collective efforts of Biswarup Bose, late Somnath Hore, Sanat Kar, Nirmalendu Das, Pinaki Barua and Salil Sahni and also the Department of Graphics, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, has always been an active center of printmaking spearheaded by P.D. Dhumal, Rini Dhumal, Jayakumar Reddy and Vijay Bagodi.

'Buffalo Rider' 12"x11" by Jayakumar Reddy

Rini Dhumal has her own print studio

Some of the alumnus of the same department include Vrindavan Solanki, Mimi Radhakrishnan, Walter D’Souza, Kavita Shah, Naina Dalal, Prakash, Satish Sholapur, Md. Rizwan, Viraj Naik, Ravikumar Kashi, Niyeti Chadha.

An etching by Viraj Naik 10"x8"

Another institution is the Department of Graphic Art, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata headed by Hare Krishna Bag, Parag Roy and Paula Sengupta. The Calcutta printmaking scene is active with printmakers like Atin Basak, Lina Ghosh, Jayant Naskar, Baishakhi, Rajesh Deb.

An etching by Parag Roy

The names of Zarina Hashmi, Natraj Sharma, RB Bhaskaran, RM Palaniappam, V Nagdas, Siddhartha Ghosh, Debraj, Pratibha Dakoji, Ajit Dubey, and JMS Mani also shine best in the field of print making.

An etching by Siddharth Ghosh

10"x10" by JMS Mani

At this moment, here in India, Indian printmakers are normally working with the following major areas: Relief, Intaglio, planography and Serigraphy.

The recent entry into the field of Indian Printmaking is Digitography and mixed media as we see in recent experiments by Ghulam Sheikh, Ravikumar Kashi, and Shukla Sawant.

An etching 13"x19" by Ravikumar Kashi

From illustration to pure abstraction - P S Kumar

Meeting the artist at his leisure, I decided to dig on how he entered his profession. Popularly known only as P S Kumar, in Bengaluru art circle, Sampath after completing Arts from Bengaluru University, ended up pursuing Diploma in Painting at KEN School of Art under the guidance of one of the top eminent artist Late R M Hadapad. At KEN he picked up skills of drawing, painting, lines, mixed media, portraiture, and also used to participate actively in the Kannada poetry recitation and folk singing activities. He was also been instrumental in conducting camps as a camp director for numerous illustration, painting and painting workshops in art institutions and art camps.

He has lectured and demonstrated on topics such as 'role of illustration art and comparative study of traditional and modern sculptures for Lalitha Kala Academy and Shilpakala Academy!

Till today he has held numerous group shows including one in Jahangir Art Gallery, Mumbai as early as in the 90's, Mumbai Kala Yatra, Hyderabad, Mysore Art Council. Designed number of murals, one of them for Southern Railways at Chitradurga. He has attended Graphic Camp at Ken Bengaluru, All India Camp at Chitrakala Parishath - Bengaluru.

Designed publicity material for Kannada films. Chief artist for Kannada Prabha Publication (Indian Express Group) and has illustrated for all major books in Kannada & poetry, leading magazines, media publications, and also documented films on art movement by the senior artists from Bengaluru. He works and lives in Bengaluru and waiting to retire so he could dedicate more time onto his first passion i.e Art...

His figurative line drawings speaks the loudest due to his detailed craftsmanship with good line work and proportional anatomy.

In recent times; he has started a series of paintings on abstract subject, which look very appealing, the sizes of them are 12"x12", with 'oil on canvas' as his choice of medium.

More images

Ganapathi Bappa Moriya Re - Lord of Obstacles

Moriya Re! Bappa! Moriya Re! Ganpati Bappa Moriya! Purchya Varshi Laukar Yah!

Ganesha is the undoubtedly the darling of the masses. I have been collecting Ganesha by few of the known and unknown artists and each artist have depicted him in their career some time or the other. Though he is taken for granted by the artists and in turn they represent him in a variety of forms, there is some symbolism attached to the standard form of his:

M F Husain's series on Ganesha speaks volumes of his mastery over his line drawing, composition, color, humor, which can keep you spellbound, though a lot of people comment - 'what is there in his paintings? ... the best solution would be to not argue.

K M Adimoolam uses 2 ways of illustration; one is simplified single line illustration and more often the one he has created here is a little detailed rendering work to get tonal effects using a combination of black & white shading with his marker.

Kolkata's noted Shyamal Mukerjee uses his regular stylized version of decorativeness to glorify Ganesha with highlighting only the face form on the acrylic sheet.

One more artist, who frequently uses acrylic sheet to his advantage and experiments more and more with new pigments is our Bengaluru's much loved J M S Mani. He creates Ganesha every year only during the festival season by popular demand.

Subramanian G(popularly known as Subra) used to paint a lot some years back meditating on gods to invoke their blessings during the painting sessions. Those were pure line creations with wash method of painting. Now he has switched over to paper collages on canvas and has reached the zenith in a short span of time. Please do have a dekho at the panchamukha ganesha from my collection and enjoy the painting.

I have represented symbolically Ganesha with "OM" using pastels, I also use this as my official logo.

Ganesha has 2 wives, Sidhi(success) & Riddhi(prosperity) and those who pleases Ganesha will automatically profit from his 2 wives with success & prosperity, so on this occasion let me wish you all a very cheerful Ganesha Chaturthi festival ahead!

Intaglio Etching - Step-by-step Process

Intaglio is a process of etching on a metal plate, either zinc or copper and the image etched is transformed on paper, which is termed as limited-edition prints/limited-edition etchings.

Let me try to explain the process on how etchings are usually made in simple steps;
1) Drawing on the surface of the plate.
2) Etching with sharp tool or acid.
3) Inking/pigment.
4) Print.

1) Either Zinc/Copper sheet of required dimension (sizes are usually 1/4 imperial, 1/2 imperial or full imperial) is taken as a ground surface to draw.

Techniques Used:
a) Dry Point - A sharp metallic instrument 'etching needle or scribe' is taken to groove or mark on the surface of the plate. The groove formed by the tool holds the ink/paint giving a very rich but somewhat fuzzy line. The plate is now ready for print and these plates are not etched.

b) Hard/Soft Ground - A thin coating of hard/soft wax is applied on the surface of hot plate (zinc/copper). Once this layer of wax cools and hardens, any pointed scribe can be used to remove and scrape off the wax thereby exposing the plate for the acid. The plate is then etched in the acid depending on the tones.

c) Aquatint - The surface of the plate is sprinkled with powdered resin and then heated so the resin melts and clings. The plate is then immersed in a bath of acid to bite/eat the areas not covered by the resin, creating a porous ground. Each of the different tonal areas on the plate is etched at different length of time. The deeper the etch, the more ink will gather in the etched texture and the more solidly the area will print. Aquatint is rarely employed by itself, but rather in combination with other intaglio methods.

2) Etching - Nitric acid of different concentration is used to bite/eat the plate thereby creating lines/groves. Immersing the plate into the acid for longer period of time will get bolder/darker tones than when kept for shorter period of time. To those places or spots where you do not need darkening, asphaltum (similar to tar) is touched up with a brush.

3) Inking - Ink/pigment of the chosen color is wiped on the surface of the engraved plate with the help of a hand roller for even surfacing so as to fill all the grooves/lines. The excess ink/pigment is then wiped carefully with cleaning agent from the surface of the plate so that only the etched areas will be imprinted on the paper.

4) Printing - The plate is placed on to the printing press facing upwards. Printmaking paper, which is 100% cotton and dampened to make it flexible enough to suck the ink out of the grooves, is placed on the surface of the plate. Now the plate is rolled with equal pressure from the printing press and felt blankets are used to cushion the roller. The printed edition is carefully removed and dried. Since these plates wear out or become dull as multiple editions are taken, only limited high-quality prints can be taken. Artists usually prefer to take 10 - 15 editions but it is best to limit the number to 20, which usually is the number taken during art camps to workout the commercial aspect of the gallery costs incurred.

The artist argues in his own words - "We haven't scratched beyond the surface of the plate," as nymphs and invented creatures surface on his acid-washed plate. "The thought, the process, the print - each stage is so intense. Each uncovers the truth of embedded myths. In this art, you need riyaaz more than schooling or gurus. When the image appears on a pulled print, it is an act as pure as offering worship."

FAQs:

Q) Are etchings considered original works of art?

A) The Print Council of America issued guidelines establishing criteria for an original etching print:

1. The artist alone must create the master image on the metal/stone to make the print.
   
   
2. The print, if not printed by the artist, should be hand printed by someone under the artist's direct supervision.
   
   
3. Each impression should be approved and signed by the artist and the master plate canceled/destroyed. The original print is not a copy of anything else, not a copy of a painting or another print. If an artist chooses to copy his own work, originally done in another medium, it would be a print done after an oil or other medium. An original print is a creative endeavor by the artist and therefore is as valid an expression as is any other form of visual art - may it be a painting or a sculpture. The original print is a work of art in it's own right.

Q) What is A/P print?

A) A/P is in short Artist's Proof. An artist takes editions of his prints say for instance 10; each edition is signed by the artist on one side of the print and on the other side it is numbered in the order of 1/10 (meaning first edition out of 10 prints in all). Apart from the 10, the artist may wish to take few extra copies either for his personal reference or to gift it to his friends/visitors, which he marks them as A/P.

Q) How are etchings signed, dated and numbered?

A) All etchings are signed, dated and numbered with pencil as a rule. Just below the crease of the plate's image; on the left hand side/right hand side is the artist's signature and year printed. Corresponding to the opposite side is the edition number and if there is a title it would be directly below the center of the image.

Only temple in India dedicated to Kunti

Temples always fascinate me; not from a religious point of view but from an architectural & historic point of view, so driving on a two wheeler along the Kundapur > Kollur highway, I noticed a pointer saying 4 km ahead temple Hattiangadi.

I drove the vehicle towards the pointer and barely covered 2 km and saw a temple on the left "Sri Mahadevi Kunthiyamma's Temple" and was surprised to read it. I had never come across any temple dedicated to Kunti in any literature, magazines, or from any persons so went inside to probe further with the priest.

The priest was quite new to the temple and has been there from about 5 plus years and do not know much about the history of the temple's origin but quoted that it has been there for more than 1000 years.

There are 3 statues found of deities inside the sanctrum and I was made to believe there is an anthill behind the deities. Devotees come here to pray mainly wishing for a child by the mothers since Kunti is believed to grant their wishes true.


The pillars inside the temple are decorated with motifs of animals and lots of bells of various sizes hang in front of the deity. There is also a well inside the temple premises and also a small shed where the priest lives.

I hope it would be very beneficial if we could gather more information on this temple by the authorities or accumulate history of the temple's origin from the elderly persons living in the village nearby to quench the travelers thirst for knowledge...