While some senior artists like Jogen Choudhury, Amitava Das and Yusuf Arakkal have been associated with pen and ink, not too many artists are willing to take up the challenge of creating work in this medium because the process itself is painstaking. For young Dhanur Goyal, however, the association with pen and ink began early in life when he used to draw caricatures while in school. And even as a teacher at Sriram School where he teaches cartooning, he continues to explore and evolve his own technique as an artist.

He has progressed from using a black pen to the isograph/rapidograph, better known as the rotring pen over the years.This medium emphasises on drawing strong and bold lines, which is evident in his recent works.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Dhanur takes the difficult road to achieve perfection in art. He works on his paintings for years before he is ready to show (his last solo was in December 2004), he chooses a medium which has been mostly ignored by the market savvy artists and above all his inspiration is often surreal where landscapes and figures merge with each other to create a forlorn quality in this work.

His solo exhibition titled ‘Lost in a Lost World’ of over 35 works in pen and ink on paper was held at Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi, recently. The show is unique not only because of medium but also the fact that at this young age, he has been able to portray the concept of peace amidst the urban and environmental chaos to create extremely surreal and enigmatic canvasses.

Inspired by his sojourns to austere landscapes of Ladakh, Dhanur has interpreted the feeling of being lost in both vast landscapes and a crowed spaced. Dhanur says, “human beings go through various emotions in their life but these emotions are not unique to a particular individual but are exactly the aspects that make us all similar. So, in one sense, this body of work is extremely autobiographical.”

Dhanur’s intricately detailed paintings in colour promise to strike a chord with every art lover. Thousands of flowing lines form the basis of his work, which is meticulous in its detailing and exciting because of its mystery.

His works encompass an exceptional understanding of our existence in the world and present a complete picture of man and his life. Dhanur loves to work with ink, according to the artiste; ink is a volatile medium, which dries up very quickly so one has to be very adept and fast at it. For a very large canvas 5x7 foot, he has also used a new technique of digital painting on the computer using a pen tablet. However, the base of all his paintings remains pen and ink. Unlike his first solo exhibition in which aspects of life such as landscapes and figures were free of one another, in the forthcoming show, they come together in a surreal sort of way. Figures and landscapes become part of one another to give rise to a whole, a whole which is ‘Life’ itself.

“My paintings move from chaos and hysteria to depiction of hope and serenity, emotions every individual would feel in different situations. My work explores the changing mental landscape of human mind,” concludes Dhanur.