Suhas Nimbalkar at Indian Art Circle

Dhar. A small town, about 40 kilometres from Indore, surrounded by hills. I spent my childhood there. Climbing and running on the top of the hills, particularly "Khanderao's Tekadi," was an exhilarating experience for me as a child.I wandered through the villages of Malwa, where men, women and children decorate their huts with cowdung.

The walls of the hut are smoothened with a thin mixt~re of cowdung and water, and then, with a thicker mixture of cowdung, motifs are made. Sometimes silver foil from empty cigarette packets and flowers of different colour are stuck on these three-dimensional motifs. These motifs that adorn the dwellings of these villages are not religious symbols nor are they part of any ritual; they are a celebration of life. Now that I think back, this was probably the first "art" which I found beautiful and that really moved me.

In my early works, the influence of M.F. Hussain's rugged, simple and very strong lines was evident. Bright colours fascinated me. After acquiring a diploma in fine arts, I joined M.S. University, Baroda, for further studies under the guidance of the late Professor N.S. Bendre. It was he who helped me to get out of "Hussainism."For reasons unknown to me I subsequently began painting very morbid themes - large canvases like "Death of the Unknown" and "Fear of the Unknown," which were highly appreciated by my colleagues and art critics.

While I was going through this very depressed phase, I was introduced to Shri Acharya Rajneesh. I attended many of his discourses and yoga sessions. And something beautiful happened to me. I noticed a dramatic change in myself. The morbidity disappeared from my canvases. Soon after I visited Nepal. I wandered in the Himalayas for a couple of months. This gave me a feeling of tranquility.

I started painting mountains. Blue mountains, green mountains, brown mountains. A clear blue sky. Lush green foreground. But with the passing of time the sky became only empty space, the mountains became simple triangles floating in space. And since they were no longer mountains but only forms,earlier colour restraints also disappeared. Now the mountains could be red, black or any other colour. The bright colours were back again. The colours of Malwa.

With the birth of my daughter, fairies descended on these mountains. For a while the imagery changed but the colours remained as bright as ever. But as time flew past, so did the fairies. Soon my daughter wasn't interested in fairy-tales any more. Once again I was on my own. I was back with the basic shapes of triangles and circles. But my triangles, circles and colours are not symbols. Nor are they rituals. My canvases too are a celebration of life.

1965 : One-man show at College of Fine Arts, Indore.
1966 : Diploma in Painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay.
1966-67 : Studied in Faculty of Fine Arts at the M.S. University, Baroda, under the guidance of Prof. N.S. Bendre. | Group show of Spectrome at Bhopal.
1968 : One-man show at College of Fine Arts, Indore.
1969 : Group show of Spectrome at Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay.
1970 : Group show of Spectrome at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi.
1971 : One-man show at Artist's Aid Center, Bombay.
1972 : One-man show at Chetana Art Gallery, Bombay.
1974 : Founder member of Astha, a group of Delhi-based artists. Participated in six Astha group shows in Delhi and Bombay. | One-man show at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
1976 : One-man show at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi.
1992 : One-man show at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi.
1993 : One-man show at Taj Art Gallery, Bombay.
1996 : One-man show at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi.

Also participated in
Parth Binnale - an International Art Fare in Feb, 2001.
Lalit Kala Akademi's National Exhibition of Art
All India Kalidas Art Exhibition
The annual exhibitions of the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, Sahitya Kala Parishad, the Bombay Art Society and Artist's Aid Center, Bombay.
Received awards at the Kalidas Art Exhibition in 1964 and the Sahitya Kala Parishad Exhibition in 1976.

Paintings in the collections of
Lalit Kala Akademi
AirIndia
The Taj Group of Hotels
and many private collectors in India and abroad.

At present working as Graphic Designer with the United States Information Service, New Delhi