I spent nice time with Prakash Joshi and Shyam Sunder Rajani at his house.Nice gentleman. Congratulations for promoting Phad(the type of paintings)
Arts » Crafts
Bangalore, June 1, 2012Drawn into family tradition
GRAND LINEAGE Prakash Joshi’s family has passed on the art of Phad painting for over 300 years Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
Rajasthan's Prakash Joshi teaches the traditional Phad style of
mythology-based painting to youngsters, to keep this dying art alive. He
does not allow students to use an eraser!
There is pin drop silence on the third floor of Page
Turners, M.G. Road, where the workshop on Phad (short for “padna” in
Hindi) is going on. All heads are bent over drawing sheets where they
are practicing to draw faces. Some are still stuck on perfecting the
lines of the eyes, while some have progressed to drawing the complete
face. “We are not supposed to use an eraser,” whispers a participant,
while Prakash is gently correcting her neighbour.
Prakash
is from the well-known Joshi family in Rajasthan that has been into
painting Phad art for almost 300 years. The first question is why he
avoids erasers. The reply is: “So that the student can see his earlier
mistake and avoid it. If he erases it, then the same mistake is
continued. Avoiding an eraser also makes the student more alert and
perfect,” says Prakash.
“Phad is a 10 Century art.
All the drawings are fixed. In realistic art we have long noses. In
Phad, we have a round nose, large eyes and round face. If there is even a
slight change in the depiction of the line, the art can be mistaken
either for a Madhubani or patchitra. Even the colours here are fixed —
orange, yellow, green, brown, blue, red and black,” he explains. “Most
of the images are side profiles for we are drawing characters speaking
to one another. Only the deities and demons are given a clear picture.”
“Our
drawings narrate stories about our local heroes – Pabu (believed to be a
reincarnation of Laxman ) and Devanarayan (Vishnu avataar). The two men
are relevant to Rajasthan's culture and a local priest, called Bhopa,
looks at our drawings and narrates the stories of these heroes in our
temples. So if we change the drawing, he will not be able to relate to
them,” explains Prakash, a B.Com graduate, who wanted to become a
chartered accountant.
“I was not allowed to leave my
hometown so I stayed back and started helping my father with his art.”
Prakash took to the art of Phad when he was a child, from his well-known
father Nand Kishore. “I would hang around and watch him at work and he
would hand me a waste cloth and paint and ask me to do something. This
was before I was 13; I was drawn into this family tradition,” recalls
Joshi, who has also won several awards for his paintings. He was awarded
the District Award and the State Award in 98, National Merit Award in
2008, National Award in 2009 and the Kalamani Award in 2010; he has no
regrets that he could not become a CA.
In '98 he
started teaching this art at a school called Chitrashaala in Bilwara.
“This art is dying because men did not teach their daughters this art as
they did not want the secret of the art to go to another family. But
now with dwindling artists, this art is dying. So we teach anyone who is
interested. There are a few girls and women who have learnt this art,”
says Prakash, whose school also offers a certified course in Phad. The
only prerequisite is that one has to be 15 years and above and have the
basic knowledge of human anatomy.
As most paintings
in Phad also include stories from Hindu mythology depicting deities,
Prakash avoids painting them on bed sheets or saris. It takes Prakash
anywhere from a month and above to create a piece of art. The sizes of
his work vary from nine inch by 12 inch to five feet by 36 feet scrolls.
“I sell my work only through exhibitions.”
He will
again conduct his workshop in the city at Page Turners on June 2 and 3
from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. For details call 9945611081 or e-mail
bannacreations@gmail.com.
Keywords: Prakash Joshi, Phad painting
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