Brushstrokes of melody

Artist Gopal Swami Khetanchi's new series of paintings depicts magnificently attired women playing musical instruments.

He believes in making his art look as real as possible. For this purpose, he not only researches on the subject he plans to work on, but also doesn’t hesitate to spend days and months on site to get the right feel before he unfurls his idea on his canvas. In his latest series of work titled ‘Saaz Shringar’, which, as the name suggests, illustrates magnificently attired women in all their finery playing musical instruments, he went to the extent of buying musical instruments to ensure authenticity.

Jaipur-based artist Gopal Swami Khetanchi, famous for his architectural paintings of forts and havelis of Rajasthan and the Mahatma Gandhi series, explains: “When I am depicting women playing different musical instruments, I can’t go wrong with the posture, placement of hands and fingers on the keys of the instrument. A real musician will know that I am fake if I get this wrong. So, for this series, I studied musical instruments and even ended up buying a few.”

Laughingly, he also added, “Actually, I can neither play any instrument nor sing. But I love music. There is always some music playing in my studio. Maybe someday in the future I will learn to play at least one instrument!’’

In ‘Saaz Shringar’, he has painted 31 canvases in oil. Khetanchi has mastered the art of detailing; every aspect of the subject’s attire and her facial expression has been captured. His love for music can be seen in the titles of the paintings, based on Hindustani classical ragas such as Des, Malkauns, Hansadhvani, etc. Most of his women are attired in the traditional Marwari or Rajasthani style. Women with heads covered with the sari pallu or dupatta and wearing the traditional thick gold ornaments are seen playing instruments like the veena, sitar, sarod, saarangi, dilruba, flute, saxophone etc; they are surrounded by abundant greenery and beautiful birds like peacocks, parrots and swans have been shown to be intently enjoying the music.

Ravi Varma’s influence

Evidently, the paintings in this series seem to have been influenced by Raja Ravi Varma. When asked, the artist admits it, saying in a very matter-of-fact voice, “I guess whenever we Indians think of traditionally attired women, there is always Ravi Varma somewhere at the back of our minds.’’

Khetanchi’s tryst with the world of painting started as a child when he started learning from his father, a drawing teacher. Even as a child, he didn’t stop at drawing what was taught in the school. He went on to add his own touches. Later, he cemented his place in the world of art by graduating in Drawing and Painting. After graduation, Mumbai beckoned.

“In that city, I did every possible thing — painted posters, banners, signposts and later joined the film industry where I worked as assistant art director in feature films such as Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Kaalia, Abdullah, Jwalamukhi ... I even worked as an illustrator for a newspaper.”

Though this stint provided him valuable experience, he somehow couldn’t continue to live in the City of Dreams. His work required expansive spaces as his oil paintings of forts and other themes needed bigger canvases and larger imaginations. “Where can I get that kind of space to paint and store my work in space-starved Mumbai?”