Artist Sudhir Katkar gets candid about the art of portrait making; talks about his many creations including portraits of Rajiv Gandhi and Aditya Vikram Birla.
Making portraits is almost like clicking pictures without a camera.
Artist Sudhir Katkar, who specialises in the art of portrait making, has made more than 2,000 portraits in a career spanning 32 years.
“Making the eyes of a person in their true form and to bring their right facial expression and skin tone, is in fact, a very difficult task. Many artist give up making portraits because of this very reason,” says Sudhir.
According to Sudhir, any portrait requires 2-3 months to complete on an average. However, with the advent of cameras the task has become easier for the subjects.
In the olden days a subject was required to be present before the painter for at least two hours every day for two consecutive weeks. Now, since work schedules are also so hectic, they can just get a picture clicked and give it for a portrait.
Sudhir has an impressive portfolio, including portraits of Pranlal Bhogilal, Parmanand Patel, and even Sultan Quboos Bin Said, the Sultan of Oman, among others. In the year 1985, he made a portrait of Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister of India, looking at an already clicked picture of his. “Murli Deora (the present petroleum minister) had introduced me to Rajiv Gandhi. He was full of charisma. I presented his portrait to him and was later informed by Murli Deora that Soniaji (Gandhi) really loved the portrait. Rajiv (Gandhi) wanted a portrait of the entire family to be made after that, but due to certain issues it could never work out,” remembers Sudhir.
He considers the portrait of the late Aditya Vikram Birla as one of his big achievements. “I made his portrait on the request of his family after he had passed away. When his wife Rajshree Birla saw my work she told me that it was the best portrait of his she had ever seen. I was elated because I was able to make my best work.”
He has, however, still not been able to make his dream portrait. “It’s of Queen Elizabeth. Her personality and her aura are truly extra-ordinary. It will be a great honour for me if I am able to do it in this lifetime,” he says.
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