Artist Vinay Sane
Exploring nature and peace through his abstract landscape paintings
Vinay’s painting efforts have also been greatly influenced by the tranquil surroundings of his ancestral home in Wai, Maharashtra, a place he keeps returning to, to spend many hours on the banks of the beautiful Krishna river. He finds peace and an inner spiritual experience through his abstract landscape paintings. His expressions on canvas are interpretations of his surroundings felt from his heart. At times he even feels they are a reflection of his soul. His abstract landscape paintings are a culmination of his thoughts, his emotions and his ideas. His paintings are part of the art exhibition TRIO happening at Nehru Centre Mumbai from June 18 to 24, 2019.
Conversation with Vinay Sane
Early years
Q: Do you remember the time when you started taking keen interest in drawing and painting?
A: This happened during my 12th standard of junior college and continued with my engineering studies days.
Q: Tell me more about your early years and education.
A: I did B. Tech and M. Tech from IIT bombay, specialising in Electrical Engineering and Integrated Circuits engineering, respectively.
Q: What did you do after completing your education?
A: I worked in IIT Bombay as a Research Engineer in the Microelectronics project after my B Tech. And, after I completed my M Tech, I worked at Singapore’s N.U.S. as a researcher, and then worked in Chartered Semiconductor, Micron Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments during my stay in Singapore.
Art as profession
Q: When was it that you first thought about making this your profession? Did you have a role model to emulate or was there someone in your family who was an artist and therefore a big influence?
A: When i was about 40 years of age, i seriously considered it making it as my profession. My cousin sister, Mrs Sadhana Raddi, who is an accomplished artist, has been my role model in the earlier phase of my artistic explorations. Mr. Bhalchandra Mandke became my mentor towards latter stage in my art explorations. Now, I am on my own exploring this vast universe of artistic creations.
Journey as an artist
Q: Your journey as an artist?
A: It has been a very very tough journey until now. Lots of ups and downs, almost like a roller-coaster ride. Many times i have contemplated on leaving this profession, but then it is like a air filled rubber ball which is getting pressed in a bucket of water. After releasing the pressure the ball bounces o new heights. Whenever i see some masterpieces done by Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Carlo Carra, Rene Magritte, Wassily Kandinsky, Renoir, i get re-enthused again, and i sit down to create something meaningful. After relocating to Pune, India, I did some art courses at Indiaart and at Art2Day galleries. Met one accomplished artist, Mr Bhalchandra Mandke, with whom I got associated. Learnt lots of nitty gritties, techniques, art materials, marketing, promoting, and exhibitions. Owe a lot to Mr Bhalchandra Mandke during the tough phase of my life. I believe, I have established my own style now, and I want to continue to expand the boundaries, and explore the unknown.
Interests
Q: Other interests in life? If you were not an artist, what would you be?
A: Photography is my first love. I get very excited when i get an opportunity to photo-shoot, especially, landscapes and mountains, and seasides. Recently i have developed a liking for writing, mainly my childhood memories spent in Wai, Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar. I am getting into Audio-stories, too. Deep, baritone voice being my USP. I love building prototypes. I love artistic design.
Q: How interested are you in social and political issues? Have these at any point in time influenced your art practice?
A: No comments on this pls. I am a neutral person. I do not care a hoot about politics.
Influences
Q: Which artists have had a lasting influence on your thought process?
A: Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Carlo Carra, Rene Magritte, Wassily Kandinsky, Renoir, Bhalchandra Mandke, Jehangir Sabavala, Amrita Sher-Gil.
Themes
Q: Which themes have you enjoyed working on in your career so far?
A: My first love is pure play abstracts, but I have been realising it does not resonate with Indian art viewers. Basically, India has an issue with art education. If there is no art education, one cannot expect people to appreciate art. So, I consciously made my switch to abstractive-landscapes. After tinkering with acrylics on canvas, i am going to go back to oil on canvas. I feel oil on canvas will give me more time and freedom to explore. Acrylic makes you work really at a high pace, which I distaste at times. So, my next frontiers will be oil on canvas. I am going to go back to abstracts, and concept based paintings, with lot of spirituality thrown in there, as a cross-linked polymer.
Future – abstractive landscape paintings
Q: What kind of work you see yourself doing in the future?
A: I want to explore abstracts and abstractive-landscapes in oil on canvas in near future.
Q: Anything else you would like to add
A: India is not positioned well in art appreciation. So, we must start with art education as a very basic tool, then go to art awareness and finally to art appreciation. We have a long way to go.
Vinay Sane’s paintings at art exhibition TRIO at Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Mumbai
Blog post on other artists exhibiting at Nehru Centre Mumbai
