Nonika Singh in conversation with master landscape painter Paramjit Singh about his odyssey in art

AN artist’s journey is often as fascinating, mysterious and mystical as the imagery that defines his works. Eminent artist Paramjit Singh, whose canvas brims with transcendental joy, agrees that behind the success of the artist lies long years of struggle.

In Chandigarh recently for the release of Punjabi translation of his biography Prakrati Aur Prakratish, Paramjit shares some of the moments that have made him the master landscape painter that he is today. Says he, "The struggle of an artist starts when you pass out from the college when you are exposed to the art world. For, there is no magic wand that will make you an artist."

Incidentally as he stepped out of the college, armed with art education from School of Arts, Delhi Polytechnic, he sought a scholarship to study abroad. Strangely enough, he was refused scholarship not just once but several times. A determined man that he is, in 1972 with a return ticket and a mere 100 pounds in his pocket, he set on his Europe dekho trip. And guess what, in sojourns to Belgium, Germany and France he not only found venues to exhibit his work but buyers too.

On hindsight, he thinks, a residency or degree from the West would only have had limited exposure. Instead, this free-wheeling trip, with no strings attached, became a life-changing experience for him. The other defining moment in his life, he feels has been choosing arts as a vocation which by the way happened just by chance.

Back in time, when Paramjit failed to make it into the architecture college, his cousin, theatre stalwart late Gursharan Singh remarked, "He draws well. Why don’t we send him to an art college?"

Even today, Paramjit thinks there is an architect lurking within him. Some of his dear friends consider him "the best among the best architects", an assertion which he laughs off as mere hyperbole.

But there is no denying that he is one of the most significant artists that India has produced. His mastery over his craft and art is undisputable something that he observes once again doesn’t come easily. He quips, "The viewer can only see the final result. No one knows what goes in the making of a painting." No, he doesn’t find it difficult to start, only where to stop. As for artists being caught in signature styles, he avers, "No sincere artist would ever stagnate or reproduce the same thing over and again."

However, change as an obsessive fixation, he is dead against. Says he, "Since nature my muse is ever-evolving, so does my canvas. However, there is no forced compulsion to change."

On the change that is happening in the contemporary art scene, he agrees that tidings are happy. But as he and his wife, an equally gifted artist, Arpita Singh’s paintings sell at astronomical prices at international auctions, he warns against reading too much in it.

He observes, "Auction prices are not a benchmark at all and change nothing for us."

He agrees that artists today are lucky to be born in a free market economy, in times when the sun is already shining bright. His daughter Anjum Singh is considered among the bright young artists of the country. Incidentally, Anjum’s style has little to do with theirs.

The proud father gushes. "She has a mind of her own, and despite her small frame, the works she creates are life size."

West, from where she trained after a degree at Santiniketan, he agrees, opens new windows but adds, "only in the sense that it makes you relook at yourself to reinforce your own roots."

On his Punjabi antecedents, he agrees that the artistic impulses he imbibed in childhood like listening to Gurbani, have shaped him but art at the end of the day, he asserts is universal. Not that he would like to be known as a global artist. "I am an Indian and since that is my first identity, it is recognition within India that matters most." On whether Punjab has missed the eminence of one of its most talented sons, he observes in almost a Biblical fashion, "They know not for they are ignorant." And to the not-so-discerning who see only joy and radiance in his works he reminds, "I think there is pain too. It’s like a piece of Sufi poetry it’s not just about happiness but something deeper and poignant that touches an emotional chord." Of course, painting is not just an emotional response. There are cold calculations as well. Geometry, balance contrast — all these factors have to be taken into consideration. But craft becomes art, visualisation with hands is complete only when it is touched by that which resides deep within the soul of the artist. When that happens, success or failure matter not, Paramjit creates for the sheer exhilaration of creativity which is at once pure and inspirational. And today his paintings might sell like hot cakes he remains at heart a simple man, "a painter whose language is colours and whose subject—the inexhaustible and irrepressible nature."

The Tribune: January 8, 2012