NT BUZZ meets a few rangoli artists in the state who are creating jaw-dropping works
NIRGOSH GAUDE AND RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT BUZZ
Sauraksha Naik
Sauraksha Naik, 20, a third year BA student from the PES College at Farmagudi was fond of rangoli art since her childhood. Her aunt’s work in decorative rangoli inspired her a lot and she too started working on it since the age of 10. But until last year, her rangoli work was limited to sanskar bharati rangoli and other decorative forms of rangoli art made on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi and other festivals.
But being fond of the art, the resident of Kavlem village in Ponda used to follow several sites on social media related to rangoli. And it was here that she came across a portrait rangoli done by artist Akash Naik a resident of Kavlem village only.
Amazed by how realistic the portrait looked, Sauraksha decided she had to learn how to do this herself. She thus enrolled in a month-long workshop in portrait rangoli art under Akash where she learned sketch drawing, colour mixing, and shading techniques. She also learned how to use powdered rangoli colours for portrait rangoli, which are very different from the normal rangoli colours.
Following the workshop, Sauraksha began practicing at home and attempted her first portrait of a girl in black and white during Ganesh Chaturthi this year, which got a lot of praise from family and friends. “The love and appreciation I got really boosted my confidence,” she says.
She then went on to participate in several state-level rangoli competitions, which were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing portraits of Sai Baba, Sant Dnyaneshwar and others (of one square meter size each), and winning the second place in three competitions and third place in one competition.
And Sauraksha is especially grateful for the support of Kavlem village panchayat sarpanch, Rajesh Kavlekar. “I need a big space and also peace of mind while drawing a portrait rangoli and sarpanch Rajesh Kavlekar provided me with a panchayat hall for art work whenever I needed. It really helped me to practice and improve my artwork,” she says.
Following her competition wins, Sauraksha then decided to try something new and with the help of her teacher Akash, created a three-dimensional (3D) rangoli art of a crocodile. The 10 feet-long crocodile created at the Kalvem village panchayat hall, took nearly 10 hours, and Sauraksha worked on it for four days.
“Thrilled with the outcome, I posted it on various social media platforms, and it soon went viral with people sharing it on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp,” she says. “Now, I feel that we can do anything if we practice it well, stay patient, and work hard.”
And Sauraksha hopes to keep at the art and come out with more unique creations in the future. “Akash has taught me a lot in the past few months and I’m thinking of working with him and come out with something amazing soon,” she hints.
Akash Naik
A fine arts graduate, Akash Naik, has 10 years of experience in the field. He does all type of rangolis, ie 3D, hyper realistic portrait, etc.
“I used to go along with my elder brother for rangoli competitions and that is when I decided to get into rangoli too.”
Five years ago, he began making 3D rangolis and his works soon became popular.
In February this year he made a hyper realistic rangoli of Sai Baba at Sai Baba temple in Shirdi, and claims that he is the first Goan to do so. His latest rangoli work is of Shantadurga Devi, which he made on the last day of Navaratri, at Shantadurga Temple, Kavlem. Besides this, he has also done rangoli work of the film ‘Baahubali’ and playback singer Shankar Mahadevan for IFFI 2018 and has various prizes to his credit. “I want to share my art with others so that some day they also get a platform and they can showcase their work to people,” he says, adding that a lot of people say that there is no future for rangoli artists as it a perishable art. Hence, rangoli artists do not get much recognition. Thus, Akash is now working on a rangoli project which will demonstrate how rangoli works can be kept for lifetime.
Gurudatt Vantekar
Since the age of five, Gurudatt Vantekar from Sanquelim used to love doing rangoli at home and participated in many rangoli competitions held in school, college, during Ganesh Chaturthi, and so on. Having been in the field for more than 12 years, doing all type of artworks that include mural, landscape, portrait, etc , he began doing 3D rangoli for over seven years and recently his hyper realistic rangoli of a child went viral. “Normally I do portrait rangoli but I wanted to attempt something different. And rangoli is a powder form so for this child’s rangoli I gave a water effect,” he says, adding that giving water effect is really difficult in rangoli.
Vantekar also does speed painting shows and has done a show for Raveena Tandon and a show with Padma Shri awardee, ghazal and playback singer, Pankaj Udhas.
Bhumesh Naik and Arjun Narayan Naik
Meanwhile in Chawdi, Pale, Bicholim, artists Bhumesh Naik and Arjun Narayan Naik have been stunning viewers with their works
Known for rangoli, photography, designing, and canvas painting, Bhumesh has been in this field for approximately 15 years now and has also put up a lot of his work on his Instagram page @goan_creative-artist.
“Since I am in the rangoli field, I wanted to do something different and creative so I started putting up realistic 3D rangoli. I also do portrait, hyper realistic rangoli and under water rangoli,” he says, adding that he learned the basics of the art from his friend
Arjun. Indeed, Arjun, who is a wedding photographer and rangoli artist, has been in the field for over 25 years. “It was in school that I participated for the first time in a rangoli competition. I drew a Ganesh for which I received a consolation prize. Then in college too I participated in a lot of rangoli competitions and won many times,” he says. In fact, Arjun won first place in the rangoli competition of the first edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in 2004.
Apart from that, both of them participated in various competitions, both in Goa and outside and have many trophies and medals to their credit.
“My rangoli art has also appreciated and felicitated by many Goan ministers. Besides that I take orders for couple wedding rangoli, birthday portraits, etc,” says Bhumesh.
