......................................................................................................Profile

 Shrikant Jhadav 

Nature speaks for Shrikant Jadhav

Today we all are witnessing a major transition, specially in a city like Mumbai; 'nature giving its way to high raised buildings, pollution and traffic. General awareness towards environment is diminishing everyday and this can be attributed to our busy life schedules. In this city we also come across people like Shrikant Jadhav, Professor, Sir J J College of Arts, Mumbai, who is putting an effort to describe mother nature in his own way, through his paintings.

Born on 11 December 1950, to a Maharashtrian family in Kirloskarwadi, Pune, Shrikant grew up appreciating nature with his strokes of colours first on paper and then the canvas. " Since childhood, I was a nature freak. My father, who was also a painter, discovered the talent in me and helped me to bring it upfront. I like every form of nature, and try to look it from an aesthetic point of view. Then I add colour of my choice," reveals the modest painter, whose dream is to live with nature.

All his paintings has a very simplistic approach towards nature, with special attention to intricacies of trees, on which he has done series of paintings and taken then all over India and abroad. Discussing about his passion for trees, Shrikant says, "I love to do an insight study of the interlocking of trees, give it a rhythmic approach and establish relative dialogue of trees with any other structure, could be a monument, temple, anything."

After accumulating lots of Degrees and Diplomas from one of India's prime Institute, Sir J J College of Arts, Shrikant decided to share his experiences with the amateurs at J J College, by joining the College as one of the Faculty in Arts. With the younger generation moving towards greener pastures leaving behind less lucrative fields, (in monetary term), like arts and craft, Shrikant believes that art and culture never dies away. "The medium of expression in paintings may vary form generation to generation, that is the transformation that takes place with passage of time. Today you see the younger generation is more indulged towards figurative structures and abstract paintings, unlike yesteryears when there was a realistic pathos in everyone's painting. But I believe that does not make any difference, art is surviving and it will continue to do so in coming years, only the canvas might take a new shape," says Shrikant.

To keep himself abreast to the latest trend and technologies used in paintings, Srikanth himself learns it first, and then pass it on to his students. "When you are a teacher, you cant afford to say, that something is beyond my topic of specialisation. We have students, all adopting different styles, and in order to teach all of them under the same roof, the faculty has to be well equipped", he added.

Shrikant, indulges himself in various other activities apart from painting. He listens to a lot of classical music, "I am an ardent fan of Pt Bhimsen Joshi. Even my wife, Geeta, appreciates Classical Music and to add to our classical taste, my daughter, who is just nine years old, is getting trained in Bharatnatyam. There is a kind of Classical ambiance in our house." Geeta, Shrikant's wife, is a writer. She has written, on her husbands paintings, and few other topics. At present she is a bit apprehensive about her works getting published, but hopes to compile all her works in near future.

This is how Geeta describes Shrikant's work...

By: Sharmistha Chakraborthy