As I strolled on the streets of Bikaner, Rajasthan, my eyes caught the attention of a signboard, Bikaner Miniatures. Though not a connoisseur of paintings, the interior attracted me. As soon as I entered the small shop, decorated with all sorts of beautiful paintings, a young man welcomed me.
Shivkumar Swami, in his early twenties, is a miniature-painting artist par excellence. As he asked me to look at some of his miniatures, with a magnifying glass, I was struck by the wealth of details so painstakingly put into the painting. The tiny brush was just the tool to convey his ideas and thoughts on paper. “I use paint brush made out of squirrel’s hair. We manufacture such brushes and also import them.” He clarified, after looking at my worried face, “No sir, we remove a few strands of hair after catching a squirrel, and then release it,” much to my relief.
“Do you see this paper? It was used as the stamp paper by the state government under the Maharajah of Bikaner, and must be at least 100 years old. We use it for painting, as the ink works better on such paper. We also use handmade paper, silk and camel hide as painting surfaces. We use only natural paint made of coloured natural rocks.” He demonstrated by rubbing the rock to expose a beautiful colour.
“Yes, I love nature and that’s why you see a preponderance of trees, flowers, birds and animals in my paintings. For example, the painting which gave me an entry into the Guinness Book of Records, for the smallest and most intricate painting, has hundreds of birds, animals, different types of trees — all in this small space.” I marvelled through the magnifying glass the skills of the artist, which made him world famous. Swami has illustrated the front cover of a book for Odisha Chief Minister Navin Patnaik.
Swami paints regularly, and even his younger brother is training to be an artist. “My father still paints. He always asks me to improve my techniques and not get carried away by success. So you see, I have a long way to go,” he smiled. It seems Swami’s name is derived from his South Indian ancestors who migrated to Rajasthan a long time ago.
Speaking about the time taken to finish a painting, Swami said, “I finish a miniature in about three to four days depending on the intricacy of the work. It took me three months to paint the miniature, which was accepted by the Guiness Book of Records.
I had worked for about eight hours every day.” His paintings cost from a modest Rs 100 to Rs 3,000 or more. He also undertakes paintings on commission. Whether it is black and white or colour, miniatures have their own wonderful story to narrate.