Give these guys some room

Artists like Sohel Sayyed and Shashank Azad have a willingness to customise and take their art, where it is needed

Exhibitions of paintings are no longer restricted to art galleries alone. Independent artists exploring new horizons of art are on the rise. Shashank Azad, a Hyderabad-based artist is among those who explore varied platforms for his exhibits. His stall — ‘Dream brush studio’ is a hub for people who like something customized to hang on their walls or use art for gifting. Shashank’s attention to detail brings in substantial business.

He works on human portraits and clients who order them enjoy the personalisation and intricacy he brings in, says Shashank. He tries to constantly bridge the gap between being a commercial artist and expressing his creative flair.“Being a commercial artist is a struggle. I would like to express a lot more with my art but there are financial restrictions for an artist. I’m earning a lot more now that I have formed a business model,” he says.

Shashank charges anywhere between ₹1000 to ₹3000 for a single portrait based on his client’s requirement. He informs that not only do people cherish the artwork, they also connect sentimentally sometimes, on seeing the handmade portraits. “I'm branching out into different things. There was one client who came here for some medical emergency. He ordered a portrait of his mother but she passed away. When he saw that portrait, he started crying. Such reactions make you feel very fulfilled and sentimental,” he recalls.

Shashank dabbles in multiple genres of art— murals, portraits and pencil drawings— taking projects up with conviction.

“I worked on murals in a few apartments at Mindspace and on some cafes in Hyderabad. And once, I painted a CT room in Delhi at a hospital. It’s proven that if a patient sees a painting or something else that’s pleasant in the hospitals, it calms their mind and has an effect on their body. I believe that art should be used for a purpose. Eventually, I want to use this for something purposeful,” he asserts.

Personal connects

Another artist who belongs to a different genre in painting is 21-year-old old Sohel Sayyed. He migrated from Maharashtra to make it as a professional artist in Hyderabad. He aimed to have more structure to his works apart from the creative burst. With water colour paintings as his niche, he believes that an artist needs to express his/her passion and trail of thought through their paintings. The paintings in his stall are very personal to him.

Sohel started in Hyderabad as a professional artist four years ago. “I came to Hyderabad for a competition. There was an exhibition in the Kalakriti Art Gallery here. Some people from the art society spotted me. I did a few exhibitions. People in Hyderabad understand water colours,” he feels.

Asked about the body of his work, Sohel says, “ I get a lot of inspiration when I work on paintings of nature and outdoors. I don’t like painting a lot of portraits. Humans are sometimes not what they seem to be outside. But nature is always constant and true. It’s very pure. I’m a water colour and a landscape artist.” Apart from this, Sohel who says he doesn’t take many orders, also tried to introduce Warli art to Hyderabadis. So if you ever spotted deep maroon walls, painted with white ethnic figures and designs along the roads, in all probability it’s the Warli mural art that artists like Sohel worked on. “Every artist from Maharashtra knows about Warli art. I grew up watching this form of art. I often paint Warli art on murals here in the city.”

Sohel believes that the city has given him a lot of opportunities. “Hyderabad inspires me a lot. I’ve been here for four years now. I want to travel the world and bring flavours of different places everywhere through my art,” he says.