A. V. Koshy interviews Vinitha Nair

A.V. Koshy: What made you take up painting as a profession, seriously? Vinitha Nair: I always had a flair for sketching.  I used to sketch a lot when I was six years old  looking at comic books and newspaper cartoons.  So, I always had a natural inclination for drawing  as a kid. When I was ten years old, I sketched a  portrait of Abraham Lincoln and it was very much appreciated in my school. So, I always had the  talent and the skill. They were already there lying  latent inside me. I eventually got busy with my  studies and work life and was not able to find time  for this talent of mine. It was only last year, the urge to paint surfaced in me which resulted in me doing  a still life in oil paint. This was my very first  painting and I realised that with each stroke of my  brush, the painting would just come alive on the  canvas. It was like pure passion coming out and it  gave me a lot of joy. This painting was much  appreciated by everyone including serious and well- known artists. This gave me the confidence and  self-assurance that I was on the right track. I  realised that this is what I want to do seriously  going forward - follow my new found passion -  painting. AVK: Are you influenced by any particular painters or paintings, and if so who all and why? VN: I am not influenced by any particular painter or painting. I have a lot of respect for all painters of  realism. Rosa Bonheur, Raja Ravi Varma, S L  Haldankar, Thomas Heakins, Rob Hefferan, Jeremy Lipking are some of the painters whose works I  like. All their works reflect a high level of skills. AVK: Ultra realism is back in demand. What draws you to this sub-genre of painting? VN: I feel that it is in the genre of realism or ultra- realism that the talent and skill of a painter come  out. A painting should reflect the painting skills of  the painter. The more painting skills that are shown, the better the painting. And what better way to  showcase your painting skills than realism or ultra- realism, since these genres require the artist to bring forth a high level of skills. There is an enchanting  quality about realism which I don't find in other  genres because of the high level of skills it calls for.  Not everyone can do realism because it is a difficult genre. It can be very fascinating to focus on the  finer details and bring them to life with my brush. It requires a high level of focus. The more challenging and complex it is, the higher the level of satisfaction I feel as I create it on my canvas. When I look up at  the sky, the scenery and the way the sunlight falls,  bathing objects in a play of light and shade, I feel  nothing is more beautiful and fascinating than  nature itself. And nothing is more beautiful than the human form. And it is in the genre of realism that I  can capture all of this. AVK: You exhibit an amazing amount of finesse,  maturity, concentration and focus for such a 'young' painter. What accounts for it? VN: Thank you the compliments. The finesse comes from an obsessive need for flawlessness. If I am  painting even a minute part of the canvas, I need to  execute the smallest detail in perfection, for me to  be able to feel satisfied to move on to the next part.  There is a sense of exhilaration that comes with  painting each tiny section flawlessly and then  moving on to the next section. Having done just two paintings so far in my life, I can be considered a  'young' painter. Hence, the maturity is definitely  inborn. It was already there in me lying latent and  waiting to be unleashed. I just pick up the brush and it flows out onto the canvas. Pure passion is the only reason behind the high level of concentration and  focus. I don't even realise the hours passing by, as I  am completely immersed in my painting when I  paint. Nothing can replace the joy that comes from  pursuing one's passion in life. AVK: There is an element of derivation in your  paintings? Don't you want to be more original,  painting from the imagination? If not, why not? VN: There is an element of derivation in my  painting which is an incidental result of doing  realism. While doing realism, we can look at the  object we want to paint and and use that as the main theme of the painting while improvising on it and  adding our own ideas to make it as unique as  possible. In the second painting, I preferred to set  the backdrop for the ballerina as a sea landscape  rather than the ballerina being on stage because I  wanted to convey the emotion of serenity in the  midst of storms. Alternatively, we can be more  original by setting up what we want to paint along  with a live model and painting from there or taking  a photo of this setting and then painting from the  photo which is what many ultra realist artists do  including the award winning realist artist Shashikant Dhotre. Going forward, I want to bring exclusivity  to my paintings by adding elements of surrealism to it. AVK: What are your future plans? VN: I want to focus mainly on realism / ultra- realism since there is no other genre that fascinates  me more. But I want to do paintings in realism  which are complex and require very high skill  levels. I want to do paintings which are very  challenging. Each painting I make should be more  complex than the previous one. I also want my  paintings to have elements of magic realism, fantasy and surrealism in them. AVK: Any words of advice to fellow painters, or  beginners? VN: Self-belief. Have tons of it. There will be  plenty of nay-sayers and people who will not want  you to succeed. Keep your self belief high. There  will be many who will want to see you fall. Keep  your sight on your goals. Follow your passion and  what interests you in painting whether it is realism,  abstract art, cubism, contemporary art, art nouveau  etc. Do not follow the trend blindly. Go according to what genre genuinely interests you, regardless of the trend. Because it is only when you follow your  passion, your soul-calling, that you will be able to  break the boundaries and fearlessly set new ones. AVK: Any experiences you want to share as a  painter and the learning from them? VN: While doing very tiny details, it's important to  keep the brush free of oil since it's difficult to blend  the lines otherwise. AVK: There is a remarkable consistency in quality  in your ability so far- any tips on how to achieve it  and hold on to it in your own ideas and words? VN: Thank you. Passion is the key to consistency in quality. When you are passionate about something,  consistency in quality comes naturally. I just take it  one day at a time. No matter what's happening  around me, whether I am having a bad day or  whether I am facing problems or people are trying  to create obstacles or hurdles in my path of progress,  whatever the situation may be, once I hold the brush  in my hand, there is no holdingme back. I just forget  everything and become completely engrossed in my  painting. Just that first brush stroke on the canvas is  all I need to fill me with a sense of power, hope and  optimism that anything is possible and I become  oblivious to everything else. It is passion that gives  us the courage to continue regardless of all the  hurdles around us. When it is our passion that we  pursue, we are infused with an invincible, bold spirit and resolve to take on whatever comes our way and  produce exceptionally brilliant works of high quality. *** Below are Vinitha’s two works that have already gained her a measure of fame. The famed Gombrich has said about pictorial realism that a   "a complete portrayal might be the one which gives as much correct  information about the spot as we would obtain if we looked at it from  the very spot where the artist stood." The first still life she did does  this convincingly for us, but the second one shows such a rapid  development in showing us the artist in a Bergerian way that we are  startled by it in a pleasant way. While still in the realist mode the  question haunt us as to why the ballerina is on the waves and the sky,  clouds and waves with its sea-green and froth, and her face, dress  everything melt into an idea that we are in the presence of an artist’s  inner space and that space has what I would like to point out:  something I have often been accused of as an Indian poet, which is  that it is not Indian in any marked way. Vinitha comes from Kerala  and acknowledges the influence of a painter like Raja Ravi Varma, in  her interview, but her real influences seem more from surrealism,  magic realism and the careful juxtaposition of objects that do not  necessarily belong together to create an effect in the mind of the  viewer that is actually a reaching out to something new and worth  following. No wonder success is coming to her quickly. Her first  painting is a classic and traditional still life but even there its mastery  reminds us more of a René  Magritte than anyone else and of the  light used in the realistic Dutch masters of old. Even the objects  remind us of Eurocentricism. I know many will criticise me for  praising this quality, but precisely for this reason I want to praise her  as it seems to me that to do what is alien seemingly better than the  aliens is as praiseworthy as to do what is cultural as what makes  painting breathe is how innate its soul is to the artist and here one is  transnational and it is all about art and not ideology. I make these  remarks not to interpret her work for the reader but to point out that  she is worth watching and I await her works of the future that are  surely going to be less derivative and more experimental eagerly.  India has produced many great painters but there is always space for  more and if I am not mistaken she is going to be one, one who to one  like me who has read critics on art like a Berger and a Hofstadter feels forced to take an interest in in the hope she will blossom into a painter of such stature that these critics too would appreciate her works.  Enough said: see for yourself the two works spoken of and enjoy  them for yourself now.