Painting without a palette

At a time when hobbies are turning innovative, Sharath Nandini Desai, a homemaker, tries to be creative while dabbling in oil painting. Her hobby is pretty unique as she slaps colours directly on the canvas without using a colour palette and without sketching. Her mantra is to work with less or no oil at all.

Talking about her passion for the art, Sharath Nandini says, “I use only the brush, stick of the brush or fingers to paint. This gives the same effect of a full-fledged oil painting on a big canvas in less time.”

She also uses different elements to give different textures to her work, like leaves for a leaf effect and flowers for flower patterns.

“I like working with natural things to show the texture of the elements of nature without following the traditional oil-painting techniques. I follow no sequences or methods that suits the context, which may be my fingers, brush or a cloth,” she says.

Sharath Nandini directly mixes colours on the canvas, without compromising on shades or blending. This produces quick results that are close or equal to oil paintings that are done rather methodically.

“I use oil for the base and then use less or no oil for the finishing touches. This method is not intended to finish a painting in a hurry but do good work in less time,” she elaborates.

Ask her if she uses any special method to make her art work last long and Sharath Nandini says that her paintings will last long like any other if maintained well. “The life of the work depends on how well they are stored, varnished and framed,” she says.

Her approach to art is ‘no rules and no techniques’.

“Landscapes interest me more than anything else, and this inspiration comes from my exposure to nature and rain, because of my father’s job who was working in the forest
department,” she says.

Explaining her method of working, she says that she picks a subject and does the base board using base colour tubes and oil.

This must be left for drying, for a week like any other canvas after which she starts working on the canvas again from the start.

She applies the colour tone directly using different techniques, which ranges from stones to branches. “I spend only about five to six hours a day on work,” she says.

Her method of working, without mixing colours on the palette and using less or no oil, does not affect the art work. “All paintings are unique and each person’s stroke is different.

I appreciate and can also do methodical oil painting. But I’ve not seen significant differences between the traditional format and my style,” she says.

She has a unique sense of colours. “Perhaps, with practice, it is achievable for anyone. I have developed some knowledge of the colour wheel and how to get the right shade in the very first stroke itself. For example, I know how much white I should put on canvas, how deep the purple should be and how vibrant the orange must be. With concentration on a subject and deep observation, it is possible to record shades in the mind. This is how I’m able to blend them directly on canvas,” she says.

Like any artist, Sharath understands that criticism is a part of fine arts and accepts it. “Conversations on art arechallenging and a learning experience. I take opinions from people and convey to them why I have adopted certain ways of painting,” she says with a smile.