Principal artist

It’s something that he still does regularly,but Nayak says that wasn’t his first brush with the sketchbook or the canvas. Even though the 32-year-old has no formal training in art,he began early,in his days at the Zakir Hussain College,doodling cartoons and sketches,participating and winning inter-college competitions,till his friends encouraged him to take it up seriously.

“I freelanced for a while for media organisations,doing cartoons for them,and doing oil on canvases alongside at home. In 2003,I had my first exhibition at Triveni Kala Sangam where my work was picked up by people like Ebrahim Alkazi. That was probably when I realised art was my calling,” he says.

Nayak calls his style of painting realistic,but admits that he is quite influenced by Impressionist techniques. “My work is almost always influenced by things I see around me. But I don’t like doing an exact transposition on canvas. I take up the idea and translate my own impressions of it,concentrating on the detailing thoroughly,” he says.

In fact,his attempt at capturing the real picture at large has also led him to dabble with documentary film-making. His first film,Sabki Apni Zameen Ho,commissioned by Ekta Parishad,was based on tribal land rights. It saw him travelling extensively through Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand,meeting up with various tribes and capturing their story.

Up next for him,is another documentary,this time looking at the government’s role in tribal land ownership rights,for which he will be travelling to Bhopal shortly. And then,at the end of the year,there’s his solo at Shridharani Gallery. “Art is such a wonderful medium for non-formal education. There’s so much that can be resolved through the stroke of a brush or the strike of a pen. That’s what gives me the maximum satisfaction!” he says.