| One seldom finds an artist who is able to channelise his creative instincts with the altogether more mundane act of earning his bread and butter. But Delhi-based Sanjeev Verma seems to be in perfect sync, unfettered by “art” forms.
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| Artist, graphic professor, jewellery designer, art director, enamel and mural artist, wall texture creator, interior accessory and furniture designer, retail designer, window display specialist, ambience consultant, for Verma his paintings are like “the cherries on the cake”.
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| In Calcutta, as a child, he was part of a neighbourhood “painting club” where the paint was supplied by a friend’s dad who had a paint factory. “We used to display our works which our parents would buy for 50 paise,” recalls Verma.
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| A friend who saw his paintings in high school suggested he join art college. “I asked him what an art college was and what they really teach,” Verma confesses his dislike for studies. “I had no hopes of passing the entrance criteria for the Government Art College in Calcutta, but I did pass.”
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| Though his father was disappointed, he soon started earning pocket money while moonlighting as an artwork artist for an ad agency. “Professionally, I was at par with the fifth year students.”
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| His association with ad agencies as art director has been a constant parallel in his life, though there were times he would abandon everything just to paint.
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| “After working in various fields and dealing with the complexities of life and earning a living, I get frustrated. The pent-up feelings need an outlet and then I just paint, but never with a theme in mind,” says Verma.
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| Interestingly, Verma’s stint with experimentation on wall textures in the 1990s was fuelled by the introduction of wall textures by a company to create less expensive and more varied and resistant wall texture paints.
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| As a result, Verma made “50-60 wall textures. That time I felt I should have studied science better in school to at least know which acid/solvent reacts with what. I created better wall finishes than the company, though I ruined my hands in the process,” says Verma, explaining the process of combining binder, solvent and other add-ons.
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| Traces of those experimentations emerge when he mixes watercolours and acrylic on his canvases. “While experimenting with layers of paint on paper, I realise I am moving from transparency to opacity. Volumes and dimensions emerge in my work and my timing is set for the layers,” says Verma, explaining his wet paper process of painting where he uses the wash and gauche technique.
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| As Verma’s works tend to linger between being figurative and abstract, he strongly resists “not binding myself to any form. I am an expressionist.” Using water base colours “more for convenience as they take less time”, he is once again experimenting with oils, mixing them with other colour mediums.
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| Most of Verma’s paintings are in bright hues, even if the content has a more serious tone. “I wear dead colours but I cannot paint dead colours,” he says of the bright palettes (he has a fetish for blue). Nor is he inclined to be influenced by his peers. “I do not see the works of other artists as I feel that somewhere I do get influenced by that, and that clashes with my spontaneity.”
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| For Verma, his paintings and designs along with everything else in life is based on balance and composition. “Once you have achieved balance and composition, textures, colours, forms can follow,” he says. “I am very good with compositions.”
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| Gallerist Manu Dosaj of Gallery Alternatives who is displaying his works at her Gurgaon gallery from December 4-15, finds Verma’s works “fantastic. Technically, he is very good. Though his perceptions and compositions are very strong, people are not yet aware of his works.”
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| For Verma who has lived with the mantra of “not limiting myself to anything and constant experimentation”, the ultimate goal is to “paint like a kid with complete freedom of expression, dispersing all the corruption that one takes in through life”. |
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