Dhanraj Sagar Shelke- India's First Artist making Oil Portraits with 24 Karat Gold Plating

Dhanraj Sagar Shelke, a topper from Bharti Vidhyapeeth, Pune in Finance & HR specialization and the great-grandson of Inventor and Artist Mr. Mahadevrao Mistari Shelke who contributed his invention of coal-powered cars and truck engines during World War -II listen to his heart and followed his passion of making oil portraits in 18 K & 24 K Carat Gold.

Dhanraj without any formal education in Art is known today as India's first artist who makes oil portraits in 18 K & 24 K Gold worldwide. Appreciated by many Bollywood, Hollywood, Sports personalities & many leading industrialists, and corporates, he has been awarded at national and international platforms. His work has been exhibited in many prominent exhibitions of the world such as the Tokyo International Art Fair, etc.

Formally not joining the family business of Real estate & multiplex, Dhanraj feels blessed to have his family support in fulfilling his wish to become Artist. Based at Kolhapur, he learned this art from a national award-winning artist Mohanrav Ganpatrao Wadangekar from Maharashtra, and seeing his dedication and innovative approach, he decided to give him knowledge for free, as he was rejected 5 times by many big art institutes to study the art.

Since childhood, his interest in drawing has helped him a lot. Though there were many hurdles in learning this art his interest and love towards this innovative art made him successful. He has given 11 years to this art and studied extensively on youtube to learn more about this art in detail. "I love to mix 24 K gold plating with crystals, metals, gems, and diamonds, etc on the portrait," says Dhanraj Sagar Shelke.

Today Dhanraj employs over 80 artists & owns an exclusive art gallery of 20,000 sqft area with in-house art & graphic studio, where they work in all art forms like hyperplastic paintings, Sculpture, 3d printing, graphics, & large installation, etc.

With the belief of art is for everyone, and not only for the rich, this 26 years old is loved by all art lovers. His work is available both in India and abroad and on online platforms such as Etsy, Google, Fine Art America, etc.

Salman khans, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Mahesh Manjrekar, are the few celebs for whom he has made the portrait. The portrait comes in customized size and the price varies from size to size. The A-4 24 K Oil painting is priced at RS 30,000/=, whereas the basic18k sketch comes for Rs. 2000/=. Each portrait is awarded the certificate of its quality and material used in the same such as Gold, Gemstones, etc and these portraits are curated in the size of A0- A5.