BHARATI PAWASKAR
Adora, Aaliyah, Anya, Serenah, Aniket, Gautami, Vedang, Shivam and Shashank - all eager and excited to enter the studio space of ‘Ink Twiddle’ where they doodle with colours of their choice and create something beautiful. Their art teacher Mithila Kelkar Upadhye is generous enough to allow free expression of their creativity and the parents of these tiny tots agree that their kids look forward to attend to her art classes at ‘Ink Twiddle’ in Ponda. Many of the kids wonder why the class is only for two days a week and not for all the days of the week, and even on Sundays. ‘Ink Twiddle’ has become an instant hit among kids within few weeks of its opening, on July 3 this year.
Mithila’s students come from all ages - kids and teens to adults who get to learn various forms of art from her - drawing, painting, simple crafts, wash techniques to specialised Madhubani and Warli tribal art. One must start young, believes this fine art graduate who herself had inclination towards art since childhood and was lucky to find expression to her passion. The onus of encouraging kids towards art lies on the parents. Once the love for art is deeply imbibed, the overall development of the child in academics gets automatically accelerated too. Art helps a person to grasp things more easily and to concentrate and Mithila whose attachment towards art is obvious - is a living example of this.
“Art is the medium through which you express, speak or communicate - something which cannot be put in just words or actions. Everything that is beautiful in this universe, is a form of art, be it a creation of nature or human. Art is an important part of my being. It’s my life and has been embodied within me always. And it would remain close to my heart forever,” she claims.
Mithila who spent her childhood in Sankhali recalls of her art feats during childhood and her journey into the world of art, “At a very young age my parents discovered my likeness towards drawing and painting. And since then they always encouraged me to walk on this path. After my SSC I joined Goa College of Art for graduation in fine art in painting stream with graphic specialisation. After graduation I joined for ‘classical animation’ in Pune and worked there for a couple of years after my course was completed.”
As a child Mithila enjoyed decorating and creating artworks for her relatives and friends. She was good at finding solutions to make things look beautiful - be it a gift wrap or a painting or some stage décor set for special occasions in the family. Her touch turned the simplest of things into beautiful memoires and those who attended the event would remember it for eternity.
Her love for art continued through her youth. While she studied animation in Pune, she worked on some tiny projects in the institute. After the course she took up a job as professional artist and designer.
After working as an animation artist, background designer, character designer, concept artist, and an art teacher for almost a decade in various prestigious establishments including Verve Communications, June Software Inc, Cornershop Animation, Fuzicom, Funskool India, Tribeappspot etc, she opted to be an art teacher at GVM’s Almeida High School in Ponda where she settled after marriage. During her stay in Pune she along with some likeminded friends started a freelancers group which worked on projects like video commercials, logos, characters, storyboards etc. “All that experience is coming handy now while I teach in my art classes now,” she shares.
Mithila has, so far, worked on many mediums, mostly those that included digital art such as concept designs, characters and background illustrations. “I prefer handmade artworks as nothing can replace that joy of holding a pencil or a brush and applying a stroke of fresh colour to the clean white canvas. I work mostly in acrylics, water colours, gouache, drawing inks and art markers on various surfaces - paper, canvas, wood etc. I also hands on experience with clay moulding and cold ceramics,” she maintains.
Figurative art is prominent in her paintings. “This is not a new found love. Even when I was still studying art my paintings always had a human figure in it. I like to draw expressive art, which includes social subjects, day-to-day scenes and detailed illustrative designs,” admits Mithila whose hobbies are many. Other than painting and drawing she enjoys clay modelling, playing keyboard and travelling.
The concept of having her own art studio was always a dream which she could live after venturing into ‘Ink Twiddle’.
“I always wanted a studio of my own where I could work with a free hand and a free mind. I encourage my students at ‘Ink Twiddle’ to bring out their artistic inner self. It’s a place where I want my students or colleagues to pour their heart out on paper or canvas. At ‘Ink Twiddle’ I am focusing mainly on introducing people to different techniques and mediums. Art is not age bound so we welcome any art enthusiastic who comes to us,” she quips.
Apart from teaching students of all ages, Mithila accepts orders from people who approach her with their ideas for any kind of artistic work - be it local or online. Her Facebook page with the same name ‘Ink Twiddle’ serves as a platform to deal with all sorts of artistic ideas and concepts. Having conducted umpteen workshops on various art forms in the past couple of years, Mithila now hopes to stable with ‘Ink Twiddle’ in Ponda, where she currently dwells.
