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make-shift wooden plank and engrossed in his work, looked like a veritable Jain monk himself. And after a highly strenuous work for three long years (1993-94-95) Shri Vasudeo Smart could complete his work which sees the light of the day in the form of this monograph now.
Vasudeo Smart worked with meticulous care even when he was working on his own paintings some of which have won national and international recognition. Beauty of form is the soul of Indian art and the same beauty of form informs all his work too. And he had acquired a rare mastery over the strokes of brush. Centre-heavy compsition, flat-prespective, forceful line-work, traditional Indian themes and figures and scenes from folk-life are a few charactritics that lend a distinctive mark to his work. He loved and admired Jain and Rajasthani traditions which charactrize the compositions, colourschemes and style of his paintings. His style also became narrative on account of the reasons discussed so far.
In many of Shri Vasudeo Smart's paintings, there is a dense delineation of human figures often overlapping one another. The influence of Jain pat paintings can clearly be seen here. He painted The First 15th August in 1948, Krishna Navras Darshan in 1958 and Sita Charitra in 1960. Under the influence of Kalidas and Tulsidas he painted Meghadutam and Pushpavatika. He showed great artistic insight in depicting various events from the life of Krishna in Nav Ras Darshan. Pushpavatika, a landmark in his artistic career, incorporates into its composition more than three hundred Indian trees.
He was extremely fond of travelling. Thus he had visited a number of places in India, undertook an excursion in Narmada in a canvas-boat and did traking in the Himalayas. And he never went out without a sketch-book in hand. Some of his sketches have been reproduced in this book.
Wherever he went and whatever he saw... a ghat on Ganga, a Ramlila performance, a tank on the outskirt of a village in Rajasthan, the great Kumbha-mela or the Tarnetar Fair, a flower market in south, the kite-market in Suart, exquisite wood carving in a Jain
16 : Jain Kashthapat Chitra
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