Artist Fawad Tamkanat

Saturday turned out to be a serendipitious day for me. My mom and I visited the Daira Center for Arts and Culture to go see an art show by eminent artists. It took a while to find it but after much phone calling and asking around we found it in the basement space of an apartment building. It is a beautiful space, large and spacious and to see all that beautiful was an absolute inspiration. Truth be told I had not heard of any of them, most were local artists but the few that caught my eye were by one Fawad Tamkanat. They were big and bold and colorful, just the way I like art work to be, but way too expensive for me to even consider buying them. On the way out I tripped on some overgrown money plant which had brazenly spilled out of a pot and was trailing across the pathway. That is when I realized we were right beneath a sign covered with the leaves which said "Artists Studio" Fawad Tamkanat which I had competely missed earlier. There was a room adjacent to it with the door ajar and I could see paintings propped up against a wall.
We poked our heads in wondering if we should go in or not, and just as we were deciding against it someone called out to us and asked us to come in. Sure enough it was the studio of Fawad Tamkanat, whose paintings we had just seen and admired in the gallery. He invited us in and I watched open mouthed as he was working on one of his paintings. He chatted about his work, his inspiration and gave me a lot of tips on how to improve my technique. He comes every day to the studio to paint and told me I could drop in any time I wanted to see him work! Now isn't that something???? Most people need to make an appointment to see him! I spent about an hour in his studio and actually got to touch a Laxma Goud painting given to him worth 10 lakhs!!! WOW! Its the one you see propped up on the easel.

Fawad was born in Hyderabad in 1962, to a family that already had artistic inclinations running through its veins. His father was the famous Urdu poet, Shaz Tamkanat. Early in his career, Fawad was invited to participate in an installation workshop in Denmark where he also worked for a few months in the printmaking studios with renowned printmakers. He became very taken up with printmaking, and launched his professional exhibitions showing only monochromatic prints. Now Tamkanat experiments with several different media and surfaces, diversifying to include those like watercolours, acrylic, etching drypoint and tarpaulin in his oeuvre. Fawad has held twelve solo shows in India and abroad to his credit, and has participated in state, national and international exhibitions and group shows at major art centres.
Here are some of his works...you can see why they appeal to me. The colors are vibrant and bold, the strokes are brash and confident with paint applied in wild reckless abandon.