It is easy to doodle on a piece of paper, or randomly make something on the computer and think of yourself as an artist, but real artists don’t have it so easy. Every day is a struggle but it is a struggle that they embrace in order to grow. For Rajnikanta, the journey from Bishnupur to Delhi hasn’t been a walk in the park but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Fresh Slate
The first time he fell in love with art was when he was in Class III. ‘In my village, there was an art teacher who was trained at Santiniketan. He used to teach about four- five kids. I was passing by his store one day, I liked the artwork so I requested him to teach.’ Rajnikanta finished 12th in Manipur then moved to Kolkata where he pursued B.F.A. (Painting) at the College of Visual Arts, followed by M.F.A.(Painting) at I.K.S.V.V. Khairagarh.
During BFA, he had a hard time keeping up. ‘I had to learn everything from scratch. I had no idea about sketching and no formal training. For artists in the Northeast, there is no art scene as such, so your techniques are very raw. I felt like, before BFA, I didn’t know anything. But MFA was much smoother sailing since I got my basics right during BFA.’
Paint With Passion
This story is from the December 2020 edition of Eclectic Northeast.
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This story is from the December 2020 edition of Eclectic Northeast.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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