A tryst with Chitramitra

HYDERABAD: An artist is someone who can make simple things look beautiful. One such artist is Prashant Shetty who creates his works using a wide variety of different mediums from charcoal to string; anything but a paint brush. The Mumbai-based painter, popularly known as ‘Chitramitra’, was in the city for a two-day showcase of his works at Taj Deccan.The artist with no formal training says, “My love for art began at the age of 10 when my teacher in school patted me in appreciation for my sketches. After that I started appreciating art as a serious aspect in my life.”Born in a family of hoteliers, his parents weren’t very encouraging about him trying a hand at art. Since the hotel business was in the family, it became his first training ground in achieving perfection in mixing colours and strokes.“When I was in college, I used to sit at the counter of our restaurant and sketch customers and gift them their portraits. My father used to hate it but I was determined to make painting my profession,” he recounts. At the age of 18, he was a master of about 50 works involving different styles of painting. It was around this time that he started producing works under the name of ‘Chitramitra’ as per the advice of an astrologer.Chitramitra, meaning a friend of art, observes people from a distance to portray them as characters in his series of art reciting stories from the mythology. His paintings are predominantly characters from the mythology with a touch of humor.He begins from scratch and creates a ready-to-hang portrait despite his limited knowledge on carpentry, a skill he picked up during a vacation at his grandparents place in Bangalore.Demonstrating, he sketches a painting of Lord Krishna playing his flute, using a string and single colour. The minute details like the tassels of Krishna’s clothes, the etching on the jewellery adorned and the painting on the halo are all brought out through different shades in the colour.To the prodigious artist, art is an inborn talent and an artist needs to bring out the beauty of anything the hand desires to create for an aesthetic reason. Mitra confesses, “After I changed my name, I think that my paintings improved. But it took me a long time to get my first break.”Mitra’s first break came when he started doing freelance work as an illustrator for Magna publications. He held his first exhibition in 2001, where he sold all of the 21 paintings he’d created. However, given the familial discontent over his professional choice, Mitra was forced to reinvest his earnings back into the hotel business. Nevertheless, in the recent years, he has come back to his original calling.The artist who was on his maiden visit to the city, has had quite a popular response and is pleased with it. “I will always treasure the city for all the love, respect and blessings showered on me. I promise to come back to this city with more good work.”