27 June,2012 10:38 AM IST | | Swapnal Tilekar
Artist Purva Kulkarni has brought her passion for charcoal painting and her love for Bollywood on canvas in her new exhibition, which is currently on display at Grubshup. Since the theme of the exhibition is inspired by the Hindi film industry, it showcases painting of stars like Madhubala, Vyjantimala, Nargis and Nutan.
"The ancient art of making paintings from charcoal is not very popular in our country, maybe because the art is monochromatic. People do not like to see black and white art as much. But, now things are gradually changing. They now understand the obscurity and hard work behind this art. So we have decided to put on this exhibition," says Kulkarni. The artist, who began learning the nuances of charcoal painting 15 years ago, also dabbles in art therapy and conducts stress management workshops for private companies.
"I started learning this art under the guidance of Chandrakant Mandhre when I was still in school. At that time, we did not have modern equipments like today. I learned the art using pencil, charcoal powder and paper stamps. Today, many tools are available for charcoal painting but I prefer to use the old technique as it gives me maximum satisfaction. It takes around four hours to complete one charcoal painting," informs Kulkarni. The exhibition also contains few of the artist's watercolour, landscapes and oil canvas paintings.
