Art has made me more content: Shefali
09/12/2017
When actor Shefali Shah’s kids were learning to paint, she casually decided to try her hand at it. She liked their works and spoke to their teacher about enrolling herself. “I learned with her for a couple of months, and later went on to research about various artists and continued painting. [I liked the] serenity in Rothko’s (Mark) work, chaos in Pollock’s (Jackson) paintings, the precision of Escher’s (Maurits Cornelis) and other masters’ works overwhelmed, encouraged, prompted and challenged me to explore my own creativity,” says Shefali, who is excited about her first solo show in Pune.
The more she painted, the more Shefali realised her love for art. The actor shares, “Art is a creative outlet and necessary for people involved in creativity. I am constantly in a need to create irrespective of the medium. When I started out, I did sketch and I continue to do so on paper sometimes. Mainly, I work with acrylic and ink. Honestly, I don’t have the patience for oil paint to dry.”
In addition, a lot of her work involved precision, for which ink fits best. She works with monochromes, mainly black, red and white. Shefali says, “Art has made me calmer and more content. What I do in films is really special work but it doesn’t happen everyday. On the other hand, art is completely my domain. It is my freedom of expression; I decide what I want to say, which satisfies and completes me. I also did a 3.5 month painting course in Spain, and I lived alone there. It was a typical student life, where I walked to school, worked on projects, packed my own lunch and learned so much.”
Shefali believes interacting and getting to know like-minded people broadens one’s horizons and provides a newer perspective to things. “The more you learn, the more is left is to learn. This is my first solo exhibition and I am looking forward to standing in the middle of the gallery and catching a 360 degree view of my artworks.”
Selecting your work for an exhibition is a tedious process, and Shefali admits that one has to be ruthless with their paintings while doing so. She says, “You have to put up your best. When I am painting at home, it is different, but when I agree to put it up on a show, I have to be open to criticism and praise. I enjoyed the process of selection, packing my paintings and sending them to Pune.”
Shefali believes art is a very individual perspective and a lot of people may not find everything interesting.
She is however looking forward to honest opinions. “For me, it has always been about enjoying the process. Right from standing in front of a blank canvas to the final product. There are times when I have hated the final product and torn the canvas. As a creative person you have to know where to stop.”
Share This Story |
|
Comment On This Story |
|
|
|
|