Raising a Voice

For 80-year-old self-taught painter Shakuntala Patade,her canvas is a weapon to raise awareness on the issue of female foeticide.

I think it was in the mid-60s, says 80-year-old Shakuntala Patade as she tries to recall when she first started painting. She is sitting in her small house off the busy Bootee Street in Camp,having recently completed a series of paintings on the subject of female foeticide. She kept up her pursuit despite her hearing impairment,and she is hopeful of finding buyers so that she can raise money for charity. Patade mentions that it was a happy accident that bought her to her creative passion. It was a friend in Mumbai,an artist,who wanted me to start painting. One fine day,I just happened to dabble with paints and a canvas. I realised this was something that I could do, she says.

During her over 50 years of tenure as a school teacher,Pathade continued to paint. Subjects,as she mentions,have just come to her. People on the streets,the prostitutes of Pila House and Grant Road,my students from school,who now soar under the global sky,they have all been my muses, she says with a chuckle. Her first set of seven paintings comprised of women in the nude. It is a very powerful emotion to grasp and bring on to the canvas, she says,adding,I sold six of them; the seventh one,I liked a lot so I didn’t sell it. I eventually draped the painting with a sari to give it a new dimension.

The idea for her current series on female foeticide struck her when she was in Delhi at a friend’s place for a workshop. They would all discuss these themes and then paint about it. I,on the other hand,didn’t even know what foeticide was. Imagine that, she laughs,adding,But when I sat down with my friends there,and they explained the entire concept,I was shocked. There was no resolution to paint as such,but when I came back to Pune,it just struck me and I decided to paint.

Most of the paintings depict pregnant women dreaming about their unborn girl child. One painting shows a little girl thanking her parents for letting her come to life. Another painting,a rather disturbing one,is of babies,both born and unborn,being thrown away. I kept reading about these incidents in the newspapers and it was very disturbing. All of it came out on the canvas, she says.

The dearth of buyers in the city bothers Patade. People appreciate art here,but no one buys, she smiles,adding,But hopefully,they will some day. I want these paintings to sell so that the money can be used for charity.” On her next subject,she says,Who knows what I will end up painting. I need to imagine something. A fixed plan destroys the art associated with painting. When there are no plans,we are free to soar and paint the way we want.

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female foeticide