CHRISTINE MACHADO
People interest French artist Jacques Servières, especially people in action. And these moments he is quick to sketch out in a matter of few minutes with his trusted pen. "The focus is on capturing the person in action. It doesn't have to be precise, you just have to see the big lines and draw accordingly. The rest of scenery you just add a few marks here and there and this can then be expanded upon later," says Servières.
Following a three week residency at Alliance Francaise, Panaji wherein he sketched scenes of the daily working of the centre, Servières is now all set to exhibit these works in an art exhibition ‘A Daily Life Story' which opens on October 3 at the centre. He is also collaborating with the centre on coming out with a book on the works.
"It is nice to see how the members at the centre work and interact with each other. And the plan is to capture such scenes in centres all around the country," says Servières, who has already covered the centres at Pondicherry and Kathmandu.
" At the same time I am also discovering India through Alliance Francaise. While I don't know how to use a camera, the pen is my own camera," he adds.
The idea of the project all began about two years ago when Servières and his wife went on a trip to Tamil Nadu. While there they made a stop over in Pondicherry where they befriended the boss of the guesthouse where they were staying at, who happened to also be a French lady. "Her husband was a math teacher in a French school there and was also president at an orphanage. So I suggested that it would be nice to do a book of sketches on his orphanage," he recalls. And this he did. Around the same time he was also introduced to the director of Alliance Francaise there who suggested that he could give a few lessons to students there. Instead, he proposed that he would make sketches of the working of the centre there and this culminated in an art exhibition earlier this year. He was then put in touch the with the Kathmandu centre, and following this has now stopped over at Goa. "The news has just travelled via word of mouth to other centres. It has been nice to work in new environments and meet new people," says Servières. Ask him whether people are nervous at the prospect at being sketched, he states that people usually don't notice him. " I am like a mouse. They don't realise that I am sitting there in the corner. All they hear sometimes is the pen. Plus I don't usually take much time to sketch," he says smiling.
A former sculptor, who has done works in the popular Sculptor Garden of Dhuys, on the bank of river Marne in France, Servières decided to focus on sketching after he began having problems with his hand. And while sculpting generally requires more detailing, he tries to keep it simple with his sketches. "If you put too much detailing inside, it becomes too heavy. It is like Mathematics for instance, here, you are presented with a lot of numbers and formula which you then need to work through before you arrive at the end result. So it is important to work through all the details you are presented with and simplify it on paper," he says. Of course, he adds, other artists have different ways of going about it, but this is his way.
Art, he says, has also helped him a lot personally. "When I was young I was all over the place without any focus. But sculpting, sketching and painting has helped me gain focus. For me it has been a process that has happened over the years but there are many big artists who have been very clear and focused even at the age of 15," he says.
But surviving only on art, is not possible, admits this former teacher. "When I was in high school, we used to have art classes where the teacher complimented my work and even spoke to my parents about sending me to art college. But my parents dismissed this and I went into another field," says Servières, who used to work with children with behavioural problems and disabilities. "And I did the same thing with my daughter," he continues, " because you cannot live on art. It is alright if you are very rich or your better half is well off thus allowing you to focus on art only because there are times where you may sell your works but at times you don't sell anything," he says.
Having finished with teaching though, for Servières this project was a welcome distraction as it keeps him busy in his older years. At the same time he also tries to stay active, cycling all around Goa on his cycle and coming away fascinated with life in this tiny state. "The people here are always smiling. Plus it is not too crowded. For me it doesn't feel like the rest of India which is very loud," he says. In fact, he has been so taken by life in Goa and it's scenic architecture that he already has plans for his next Goa based project. "I have been going around sketching scenes in Goa and I hope to come out with a book on this sometime later with Alliance Francaise," he says. And his sketch book is already more than half filled with sketch works of Goa.
