Meet Dhanraj Sagar Shelke, the artist who makes gold-plated paintings

Dhanraj Sagar Shelke, a sculpture artist and painter makes 24 karat gold-plated customised oil paintings mixed with crystals, metals, gems, and diamonds; 18k gold coated oil painting of Lord Ganesha ji in Peacock background (Source: PR Handout)

On how he came up with the idea, Dhanraj, 26, who has been making such works for the past 11 years, told indianexpress.com that his inspiration have been the artists from the Mughal empire, Maratha empire, and British empire; Dr Rajesh Deshmukh, Pune's collector, 2021 (Source: PR Handout)

"I have tried to achieve the old heritage of making art in gold plating with realistic oil paintings. I am also trying to achieve the same details and revive the style. This kind of art technique was also known as the king's art or royal art. Gold plating art is an art where we make the portrait or landscape as it is realistic and add gold in the background or at necessary parts where it looks good. This makes the art pop out, and at the same time, it becomes an investable piece, Dhanraj told indianexpress.com; 24k gold plated oil painting made for Ram mandir Ayodhya (Source: PR Handout)

Over the years, he has made portraits of Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit Nene, and Mahesh Manjrekar, among others; Atanasio Monserrate, Revenue minister, Labour minister Waste Management minister Goa (Source: PR Handout)

The colourful paintings come in a variety of sizes and styles. An A-4 24K oil painting is priced at Rs 30,000, whereas the basic 18K sketch comes for Rs 2,000. Each portrait is awarded the certificate of its quality and material used in the same such as gold, gemstones, etc. These portraits are curated in the size of A0- A5; 18k Family Painting made of gold plated - Krishna Institute- Karad, Maharashtra (Source: PR Handout)

On his favourite pieces, he said, "All of my art is special to me and also different in every aspect". Recalling his first tryst with gold-plated art, Dhanraj said it was his exhibition at Tokyo Art Fair that paved the way for him to stick to this form of art as his "go-to style". "The exhibition was a hit at the international stage. And from that point, I found my style of gold-plated art and also got a path ahead," added Dhanraj; 24 karat Gold plated foil (Source: PR Handout)

Notably, Dhanraj informed that one gold-plated oil painting takes 40 days to make; Painting made of 18k gold coated oil painting of Lord Gopal ji (Source: PR Handout)

24k gold plated painting of Madhuri Dixit Nene and Dr Shriram Nene (Source: PR Handout)

Admitting that digitalisation and AI are realistic challenges, Dhanraj rued that "there are very few art lovers left who still want to buy real handmade art in this digital age"; Artist Dhanraj Sagar Shelke (Source: PR Handout)