Raghavendra Hegde from Sirsi has been working with sand for 10 years, and has given 700-plus live sand art performances.
He is in Bengaluru with a set of sand paintings featuring landscapes and portraits of prominent people. “Sand art is like life. Both are born from the earth, and once the show is done, return to the earth,” says Hegde.
In the past year, when stage performances came to a standstill, he tried his hand at sand painting for the first time. While sand art deals with the practice of modelling sand into an artistic form, sand painting is the art of pouring plain or coloured sands onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed art piece.
“I was able to explore new possibilities using very little sand. For example, I could make a single piece take multiple forms,” he explains.
A work takes him a day or two to complete. “I am in the process of exploring other possibilities in this eco-friendly art,” says Hegde.
‘Sand of Time’ featuring 120 sand paintings, on till December 27, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath.