Brush-stroked vignettes of India

If you thought the 84-pillared cenotaph, Sukh Mahal Palace, Bundi palace or Taragadh Fort in Bundi were the only attractions, think again. There is more to this dusty Rajasthan town than the touristy, insists Kailas Anyal one of India’s ace contemporary painters known for the attention to detail he brings to his painting of Indian townships.

“While most people brush off dusty milieus marked by dilapidated houses, stray cattle, criss-cross power, and tv cable wires and chaotic sounds, there’s a method to the madness and even that has its own rhythm,” he explains but brushes off suggestions he is trying to romanticise filth and squalor. “The innate beauty and rhythm is not because of the system or the dispensation in power but despite them,” says the 52-year-old whose brush has re-created scenarios from Jaipur, Triyambakeshwar, Hampi, Badami, Gokarna, Allepey and Leh-Ladakh in the past.

We ask for his favourite place. “That’s tough. All the places carry a signature charm for the artiste in me,” he says but when we insist admits, “Painting Ladakah in sub-zero temperatures in the winter of 2012 was both challenging and fulfilling. No matter where you look the landscape is breathtakingly stunning. To then find a spot to showcase this beauty and capture it on canvas was quite a challenge.”

On his process, the JJ School pass out spares us the cliched stereotypical arty abstractions. “Once I’ve taken in the place on the first day. I don’t waste time exploring every single spot. I select one zone and find several scenes there to capture. Depending on the painting size it takes 1.5-4 hours to complete.” 

Apart from the initial curiosity, he says he’s rarely been bothered by crowds. “Starting from scratch it is just blobs of colour so it doesn’t hold the crowd’s interest. Also often the vignettes I capture are so routine for them that locals often find it bizarre I’ve even chosen them.”

Originally from Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) Anyal’s fmaily shifted to Solapur since the last three generations. “My father was keenly interested in art but existential priorities made him pursue engineering. There too he enjoyed drawing ‘class’ the most,” he laughs. Perhaps hereditarily, he too had a lot of interest in art and painting since early childhood. But it wasn’t until he flunked Grade VII poorly, that he had his moment of epiphany. “Crazy about cricket I disregarded studies. Then I failed my final exam,” he remembers. The shocked Anyal got some sound advice from a teacher at school. “He knew I loved the drawing class more than anything else. He told me I’ll have to pursue studies and only then be able to pursue my dreams of joining JJ school of Art as I wanted.”

That pep-talk and his father’s encouragement saw him top the batch next year and go on to pursue art education and flourish as an artist. So much so that he is now not only much sought but an awardee of the prestigious Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Achievement Award this year. In the past, he has been Artdom’s top 10 and even bagged the Art Society of India award.

His twin children are interested in art but have chosen to do this along with other professional careers. While his daughter is pursuing an Industrial Psychology post-grad his engineer son is currently pursuing MBA.