About me

What is Art to me?Deep in my psyche, I am constantly weaving a tale and the deep urge to tell this story, takes shape in my art. Additionally amplified by my engineering background to create and create something unique – with that I am always working a color, a form, a line. There is also a feeling of answering to a divine calling that keeps energizing me to birth something that has a life of its own. In short, I am a storyteller who found paint to tell his stories.​

My Art? If I am to use an existing technical nomenclature, I will peg my self as a fauvist figurative expressionist, portraying emotions I am feeling when I work on a painting. My goal is let the painting tell its own story and seed a thought or emotion ( positive or negative ) in the viewer. My teachers in art are and will be the hundreds of artists, masters, and thinkers whose books and works I have read and pored over for hours. They have made a lasting impression on me and guided me through my experiments.​

My Work to date? I categorize my work in two broad areas: Mythological tales and lores of the core Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses based on the Puranas (old tales). There are 18 Maha-puranas in total and my goal is to picturize their stories through my art. These stories start as nebulous visions in my mind based on my understanding of the books ( I have read the Shiva Purana or the book of Shiva, 27 times! ) and my childhood memories of having grown up listening to them. My ultimate goal is to portray all these beautiful age old tales that are the pillars of Hinduism, without delving and depicting the religious aspects, unaltered and as an art form , so hopefully generations to come can experience them.​

The second category is broadly called forms, these are disjointed series of paintings carrying a central emotional theme – of creating peace, happiness, harmony, family bindings, nature, our surroundings. Some of this work is also an inner need to sometimes break away from a deeper focused story telling mode to just the bliss of pure abstraction existing on just color and texture.​

My method? Every painting I work on I see as an experiment, personifying one or more qualities of color, form, texture, value, style, often inspired by an old or new master. My preferred medium is oil but depending on my temperament or need of the day I work in acrylic and encaustic mediums. I spend hours researching, drafting & documenting my early sketches the color compositions, the line , the layers and texture.​

Next, I either use a projector or hand draw the painting on canvas or wood panel and then let the painting take me on a journey of its own. I will not declare the painting done until I am at the end of my skillset. There are paintings I have worked on for years until I feel satisfied or just come to the end of my skills.​

My beginnings? All my life, I have been in awe of artists – engaging in their creations, deciphering their thought process on color, line, and texture, and in the end celebrating them. I had no idea that 8 years back ( 2011 ) in trying to gel with my younger daughter I would find my life’s passion. My daughter was taking an art class at that time and I decided that to spend some quality father daughter time through venturing into a joint painting session. So my artistic journey commenced, with a simple landscape based on a Youtube video, a small pack of cheap tube colors, a few cheap brushes, and an eager father and daughter duo ready to make the masterpiece of their lifetime.​

After multiple replays, loops, and pauses of the Youtube video and a solid month of sheer experimenting, we had 2 canvases ready, which at the time looked pretty decent. Both of us were happy with our work and the time spent together, but for me, something else happened: I found a my destiny, Art. The rest of the story hopefully should be evident in my work:).​

The other side of me https://www.linkedin.com/in/minesh-kher-581a793