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Camel colours that launched a million artists

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Most children have grown up using Camel colours and paints in school, and these colours have shaped the way art is perceived and created in India.

Kokuyo Camlin Ltd is now celebrating 50 years of Camel colours. And the company is observing it through an art exhibition, which was inaugurated by Uddhav Thackeray at Jehangir Art Gallery on Dec 1.

The exhibition is a collection of works of 80 prominent painters in India. It also has paintings of three generations of an Udaipur family.

Some of the renowned artists whose paintings are being exhibited are Krishan Khanna, Gieve Patel, Vasudev Kamat, BC Sanyal, Shanti Dave and NS Bendre.

Hema Joshi, who is the granddaughter of legendary painter Kala Maharshi SL Haldankar, is also present with her untitled blue abstract painting.

"Around 30 years ago when I ran out of my favourite Indian yellow paint, I searched the whole city but couldn't find it. I was desperate to finish my painting. I then called Subhash Dandekar (chairman emeritus of Camlin). He did not have it either. But within four days, two fat tubes of Indian yellow were at my doorstep. Such is the connect he still maintains with artists," Hema said.

"My father (DP Dandekar) was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Swadeshi movement. He decided to enter the education arena and began with ink and stationary. He started Camlin in 1931. I went to England to study colour chemistry in 1960, and introduced Camel colours in January 1964. We persevered and here we are now," said 76-year-old Dandekar, who also oversaw the creation of Camel Art Foundation.

The Camel school colour competition is the worlds largest art competition in which over 50 lakh students participate every year.

Indian artists swear by Camel colours—quality, price, brightness and viscosity.

Anant Bowlekar, professor emeritus and HOD of painting at Sir JJ School of Art, said: "Brushes and other stationary were not easily available. And I couldn't afford expensive colours. But when Camlin introduced its range of Camel colours, artists found what they really needed.

Camels' quality is on par with international colours. My paintings were drowned in the 2006 Mumbai flood, but none of them has been affected by fungus yet," Bowlekar said.

Dandekar's father supplied ink to Balasaheb Thackeray for his cartoons, and one of his works has also been put up at the exhibition. "My father used Camlin ink for his cartoons. From a cartoonist he went on to launch the Shiv Sena. If my father hadn't got the ink of his liking, who knows where we would have been today. Any painter in our country is directly related to Camel," said Uddhav, after inaugurating the exhibition that will be on till Dec 7.

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