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Paresh Choudhury

Paresh Choudhury

Born in Orissa, Paresh Choudhury did his BFA in BK College of Art, Bhuvaneswar and MFA in Fine Arts Faculty, MS University, Baroda. During his student days itself, Paresh was known as a water colourist and he chiseled up his skills under the masterful guidance of the artist and scholar Dr. Dinanath Pathy who recognized his talent at an early stage itself. An avid observer of his surroundings Paresh captures the sensual and humorous elements of daily life in his watercolours. He has been working on canvases for a long time and his favorite medium is acrylic because Paresh feels it is the medium which is flexible between Oil and watercolor in terms of playing with it. Paresh, in his canvases deals with the environmental depletion caused by the aggressive urbanization. Though he does not make stark and direct references to the environment, by creating oppositional symbolism, he generates the intended pathos in his works.

How did Paresh come to know his artistic calling? 

“In my family no one was a professional artist but my father used to paint brilliantly as it was his hobby. In addition to that all cultural activities of my village and later staying in both beautiful small heritage towns like Khurda and Cuttack provided me with initial inspiration. But as a kid I got stimulations from the children’s magazine ‘Chandamama’ and other mythological calendars. As a child artist I had bagged most of the neighborhood prizes at Cuttack including school Annual awards. I really wanted to pursue a career in art after my Intermediate in science. Later I joined the BK College of Art & Craft in Bhubaneswar”.

How did he excel in watercolours?

“Orissa has a tradition of watercolours. Though it is not acknowledged like the Calcutta School of watercolours, many Orissan watercolour style is quite popular. However, I tried to bring in avant-garde changes in the established themes and style as well. The traditional watercolours usually depicted rural scenes, complete with trees, huts and water bodies. I tried to bring in the urban elements in my works with some untouched blank spaces. Suddenly the whole look of the works changed. The introduction of urban elements in the rural setting, in a way reflected the changing social realities also. I did several watercolours and exhibited them in Orissa. I got the Lalitkala award for the water colour painting when I was in 3rd year and it was collected in our state museum.”

Someone said that his paper works resembled those of Paresh Maity..

“That was quite interesting. When I exhibited my work in Orissa, some artists mentioned this stylistic resemblance. So I made a trip to Calcutta to meet Paresh Maity and showed him my works. And I could see a lot of Paresh Maity watercolours in Calcutta. This visit in a way helped me to think more about the language that I was using. Later, I removed the hazy feeling from my works and the strokes became more precise and graphical. I started using graffiti and collage in my paper based works.”

How was his Baroda experience?

“In Baroda I concentrated more in graphics. Survival was an issue at that time so I worked in advertising agencies to support myself. This experience helped me to think graphically. I was interacting with the noted artists staying in Baroda at that time and could learn a lot from them.”

What brought him to Delhi?

“After Baroda I chose to come to Delhi because I wanted to establish myself as an artist. The initial struggling was immense. I worked with different ad-agencies to eke out a living. Working in the field of advertising helped me to develop my visual thinking in a different way. I designed characters, products, story boards and so many other things. However, I kept on painting in my private studio. Sometimes, working in the field of graphic design became a hindrance in my career as an artist. Many people rejected me for the simple reason that I worked in advertising. But recently the examples of Baiju Parthan, K.M.Madhusoodhanan, Manjunath Kamath and so on inspire me. Internationally, the names like Raymond Pettibon, David Hawkins and many are fitting examples. They too have worked in advertising and graphic design and also have proved to be good artists.”

A lesson learned from the field of Advertising..

“Advertising is all about promoting a product. What they always talk about is promotion. But artists are generally weak in this point. Most of them do not promote themselves aggressively. Though I promoted products I did not learn the lessons to promote myself as an artist. I feel many talented artists initially look for a support from the advertising field, but as they fail to promote themselves, remain there as ‘graphic artists’ forever. It is a taxing area.”

About London and UK experience

“In last September 2006, I had got an opportunity to visit Norwich and London on a residential art project for a month. That time saw me visiting various prominent art galleries and art institutions including Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts-Norwich, Tate (Modern/Britain), National Gallery-London, Royal Academy of arts, Hayward Gallery etc, where I studied closely the works of Post impressionist like Gauguin, Van Gogh and Dali from surrealism and Pop artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Peter Blake, Andy Warhol and David Hockney and from today artists like Tracey Emin, Raymond Pettibon and Matthew Ritchie.

However, The Tate was a great education place for me, I always stopped at its large glass balconies and cafe to enjoy the view of Thames River and the beautiful architectural skyline across. Being emotionally captivated, I produced a series of paper works on London titled ‘London Recalling’ after my return.

What do his new paintings deal with?

“I travel quite often in my village and I have been watching how the life of flora and fauna is disturbed by the avarice of human beings. In the name of urbanization and progress, people simply destroy the environment. They do not care what is happening to the life of other beings. The gap between the rich and poor is being widened day by day. I deal with these issues in my works. But I do not make them representational. I use certain motifs so that the idea is conveyed effectively. Quite often I use dominating iron and steel structures that menacingly herald the expansion of urbanization and the depletion of environment. Of late I have been experimenting with the aspects of sexuality as a political ideology and how it contains the urban content symbolically, juxtaposing them with the ecological context through an illustrative language, which could be understood even by the uninitiated onlooker.”