Penning Down

It is incredible that the artiste,who has been into this profession for only the last seven years,has already had14 exhibitions under his belt. However,he gives full credit to his Pune-based guru Govind Dungre,who specialises in landscape painting. Khollam has also had the experience of working at FTII as an assistant art director in the past. His works have been featured in cities like Mumbai,Pune,Nagpur,Bangalore and Hyderabad.

In all his exhibitions,there is at least one painting with a human figure with a red and yellow bindi (tikka) on the forehead. While the yellow one symbolises the village of Jejuri the red one signifies Tuljapur. “Most of my paintings depict rural Maharashtra. I visit lot of villages,interact with the people and learn about their culture,which ultimately reflect in my paintings,” says Kholla.

Another subject close to his heart is the street performer – Potraj and Gondali. Khollam feels that a painter’s should be a very keen observer with sharp memory. He explains,“For instance,if my theme is ‘A Family’ – I may pick up a woman figure whom I must have see in one village but the man could be of another village.” According to him,what holds importance is the painter’s creativity and imagination in putting these two figures on the canvas as a couple.

Explaining further,he says,“In a painting of a shepherd with his sheep,it’s not necessary to make all the sheep look identical – while some can be white or black,some may be thin or healthy.”

What is distinctive about his style of painting is the fact that whenever he paints large-scale memory drawings,instead of going through the usual practice of using measurements and squares,he prefers freehand.

Having being born and stayed in Pune for a couple of years,Khollam feels that although there are people in Pune who have great knowledge of art and appreciate good work Mumbai is better as far as the commercial aspect and the number of buyers are concerned.

(Khollam’s paintings are exhibited at Malaka Spice,Koregaon Park till March 15,from 11 am to 11.30 pm)