The name Arnab usually finds association with a person testing his lung power on National Television, but the Arnab we at Ivory Imaginations know is anything but that. A marketing professional based in Pune, Arnab Das is a young man, gentle and expressive with his speech, but his deepest feelings find expression through art. Arnab has been painting for years now, no formal training, no big art school names to boast of only passion for painting that drives him to create some magnificent pieces.
“As a child I grew up watching my dad sketch & do calligraphy. My grandfather used to do oil painting. None of them were trained they were just passionate about art. It seemed like art was running in my blood. I still remember I was in grade 5 and my neighbor used to make charcoal sketches, I would sit next to her for hours just concentrating on the strokes. Sitting for 4 hours straight wouldn’t tire me, the charcoal strokes used to take away all my pain” Confides Arnab who started his art journey with a piece of charcoal but has transformed into a painter after his friends encouraged him to do so in 2012.
Arnab has tried his craft at everything from charcoal sketching to graffiti but he had one sole obsession when it came to creating any art piece. “I like to draw Ganesha. Over the years I think I must have painted and sketched a thousand versions of Ganesha. I think it is also because Ganesha is one Hindu God you can imagine in so many different and interesting forms. So you never run out of ideas of creating a different version of him” says Arnab.
Painting and marketing is not difficult to connect, so with the encouragement of his friends Das decided to create a greeting card company. In 2013 he ventured into this business. He created a number of greeting cards but unfortunately couldn’t create a ripple in the market. But failure cannot douse the fire of passion, so Arnab kept his spirits high looking at the business as a minor bump on the road and bump it sure was. His cards found takers in his neighbors and friends, creating a market of their own.
“Arnab means ocean. When you look at the ocean it is vibrant and notorious but there is life, movement deep inside that no one can witness from the outset. I too have a lot of thoughts going inside my mind & I feel my paintings reflect my inner conflicts as well as desires” Explains Arnab. He has for the longest time been painting different forms of Ganesha but has now switched to painting nature and its exotic creatures.
“Some of my recent paintings like the Snow Leopard or the Kathakali Dancer are paintings that depict the contrast of beauty & strength. People usually associate beauty with someone demure or relatively weak but I look at these creatures and characters and I marvel. Maybe I also feel drawn toward them because I am a Leo, strong, Confident and Dominating and such images capture how I feel about myself.”
To follow something that your heart truly desires through failures and struggle is certainly a trait of the strong. And by that standard we wouldn’t be wrong in saying that Arnab sure is a lion heart his sun sign depicts.
