Capturing Hyderabad in water colours

Hundreds of sketches at the Sealdah Railway Station and thousands of hours spent mastering water colours at the Calcutta Government College of Art and Craft, the only institution that offered a five-year course in Bachelor of Arts has stood Kishore Singh in good stead as he captures the sights and sounds of— be it Hardwar or Hyderabad with ease.

In these days when artists take the easy route, Kishore Singh has stuck to water colours. “One wrong stroke or a second’s delay is enough to ruin a painting and that is where the challenge lies,” says Kishore. Skill, speed and the way the paper behaves is something that the artist masters over the years and going by the works of Kishore one can say that he seems to have come close to perfecting the art.

Capturing Charminar on a hazy day, an aerial view of the horizon from Golconda Fort, pigeons flying over minarets, the majestic Moazamjahi market standing tall after washed by the rain gods and the roadside tea stall all come alive on paper that is imported from France and the water colours that are procured from Germany. But why not Camlin colours we ask? “The final output in Camlin colours give a muddy look and I do not want to compromise on quality,” says Kishore who is keen on showcasing his works to the international audience.

When he is not working on animation, Kishore is busy travelling to the bylanes of Hyderabad spending time just watching, photographing and absorbing the sights and sounds. Even as a child he would bunk classes and watch sculptors at the Indian Museum. By spending almost eight years now in the city, he calls himself half-Hyderabadi and he still snatches time from his busy schedule as he used to in school. This time it is not the Sealdah or the Howrah station but every nook and cranny of the city of minarets.

The show titled Art and Irani chai is on at the Muse Art Gallery, Marriott till Sunday.