A life on canvas

Simply titled Sketching, the textbook was first published in 1971 and is now available in Hindi, English, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada and Bengali. A veritable Bible for sketching students, it imparts lessons in holding the pencil right to drawing human figures with minute details like clothes, ornaments, accessories.

Telling how it came to be, the artist rewinds to his student days in Mumbai. After graduating in philosophy, Khasgiwale decided to pursue art – his hobby and first love – and enrolled for a diploma in the subject in 1954. To earn an extra buck, he started teaching an American girl, just about 10 years old. “Leean Secunda, my pupil, was bright, but she made it clear from day one that she preferred playing to learning how to paint. Her mother’s insistence saw me devise ways to get her interested. I asked her to doodle and that aroused her curiosity. She picked up the pencil enthusiastically, and soon designs and figures took shape. She was hooked!” he narrates. Those exercises for Leean served as groundwork for other such teaching sessions, and many years later, they were compiled into a textbook.

Meanwhile, in 1954, he won a scholarship from the Art Society of India, that accorded him the opportunity to spend six months in Kashmir. The project was to accumulate information about the place’s culture and depict it on his canvas. The 150-odd frames that resulted from his sojourn highlighted the landscapes, and details of the region, its inhabitants, their lifestyle. He also devoted one segment to the environmental effects on art, his work earning him a trophy from the late M.R. Achrekar’s Academy of Art.

Displaying his paintings at Ahmednagar, Mumbai, New Delhi and Srinagar, his collection expanded as he also travelled around Saurashtra, adding to his personal artistic bibliography. “However, this did not get me my bread and butter. All along, I did odd jobs like biology charts and illustrations to meet my financial needs. Working with the late Achrekar, whom I consider my mentor, following him to the R.K. studios, I even painted movie banners, and also learnt the ropes of art direction and publicity,” he recalls.

But Khasgiwale knew this was not his calling. Moreover, Mumbai offered no place to stay, no permanent job, and he returned to Pune in 1957, immersing himself in book illustrations. “I did over 1,000 assignments, mostly for religious books, and got paid just 50 paise per illustration! It was donkey’s work, earning me no money. However, I stuck on, and picked up one prestigious project – Lamps of India – a Government of India publication. The Raja Dinkar Kelkar museum was my source of reference. Later, we exhibited those sketches in New Delhi”.

But regular employment still eluded him. For want of a teaching certificate, he was refused a teaching job. That was when Khasgiwale decided he’d had enough of running from pillar to post for a sustained means of livelihood. He needed to get started on his own, and that resolve saw him open his advertising agency in Pune in 1971. Since then there has been no looking back, but this commercial success leaves him with little time to invest in his passion for sketching.

“Sketching is the foundation on which all good painting resides. Once your pencil work and your understanding of the subject is strong, you can work in any medium. That is why, while working with Achrekar, I experimented with different techniques. My pupils have come from all walks of life – from schools of art and elsewhere. Ensconced in their respective professions, some wished to dabble in their hobby, that had got side-lined along the way”.

A mild stroke of paralysis in 1995 did not deter him, and the fine details of a sketch of Iyengar in the post-paralysis phase stands testimony to his determination. “My sketchbook is my best buddy,” he asserts, and he cannot leave his friend’s side at any cost.