Sketching to make a difference

Rupesh Patric, a charcoal artist based in the City, works as a software consultant with a multi-national firm and pursues his passion for charcoal art in his free time.

Every year, he designs a desktop calendar using his works and through that, he has been supporting various social causes.

Recently, he designed a calendar for Vimochana, an organisation dedicated to women rights. The calendar depicts the various facets of the fairer sex and Rupesh has tried to capture the innocence, angst and beauty of womanhood though his true-to-life works.

“I got to know about Vimochana when we were seeking help for a victim of domestic violence. I was impressed by the selfless way Vimochana stood up for that victim and helped her. So I pledged to support them in any way I could and that’s how I decided to dedicate this year’s calendar to them,” reveals Rupesh who has also created calendars for Dream A Dream, ‘Sneha Nilaya’ and ‘AshaNiketan’.

The calendar has 12 charcoal sketches handpicked by Rupesh from his old works. They are not a part of any series in particular and some have been sketched exclusively for the calendar.

“None of my full-fledged series had entirely dealt with woman-related issues. So I had to pick sketches from different works. Still they make a cohesive whole and shed light on issues that we turn a blind eye to and attempt to make a difference,” the artist opines.

Rupesh took to charcoal art during the early years of his engineering degree and developed it into an abiding passion.

“Using charcoal is great for expressive sketching, for developing deep tones, volume, depth and realism. It is an art form that can really bring rich organic simplicity to a room. Black and white art is extremely striking and induces heightened emotion to any work,” he notes. His major works in charcoal include ‘What’s Your Story’, ‘Cross Over’, ‘The Awakening’ and ‘Speed Weed and Birth Control’.