4th Annual program of the portrait artists’ group was held on 23rd and 24th February in association with Jawaharlal Darda Art foundation at Jawaharlal Darda Art Gallery, Nagpur. This two days event started with lamp lighting and Inauguration by Chief guest Shri. Vijay Darda, Chairaman Editorial Board Lokmat, Group’s Founding Trustee and Artsit Vasudeo Kamath, Artsit Vijay Acharekar, Artist Abdul Gafar .
In Inaugural speech Vasudeo Kamath manifested Portrait Group’s vision to conserve realistic art through various events, competitions, demonstrations. He also expressed aim to take this movement beyond Mumbai and Pune Metros across India. Conducting annual event at Nagpur was one step towards it. Vijaybabu Darda express every support needed to make this movement successful.
The demonstration on day one by eminent artist Vasudeo Kamath and Vijay Acharekar were treat and learning for audience. Unlike regular portrait demonstrations which are done from life, both artist choose to do Subjective paintings in acrylic and demonstrated how references from life can be used in such paintings. Artist did question answer session while painting clarifying nuances of realistic art, portraiture in particular. Vasudeo Kamath explained that such paintings require regular study of body language, body structures, landscape for background , drapery as well as literature references to make them reliable and avoid glaring mistakes in period paintings.
Day two started with live portrait competition among seven finalist chosen over year from online submissions. The finalist arranging lights, drapery, backdrops, posture of models was keenly observed by arts students and art enthusiasts alike. Finalist chose to paint live portraits in their favorite mediums while art lovers watched this with lot of excitement. This was one of kind and first ever event in Nagpur art circle.
The final portarits were judged by Panel of Juries comprising of artists Manoj Sakale, Prakash Ghadge, Abdul Gafar, Vijay Acharekar and Vasudeo Kamath.
Akshay Pai was adjudged the Grand Prize winner who won cash award of 75 Thousand and Vasudeo Kamath Grand Trophy. Kudalayya Hiremath won price of 5o Thousand for 1st runner up where as Vaibhav Naik secured second runner up positions winning cash award of 25 Thousand. Other finalist viz. Sandeep Shinde , Raghuveer Shinde, Suresh Jangid and Nilesha Phad were awarded cash award of 15 thousand each.
The event was coordinated by Jawaharlal Darda Art gallery Curator Amit Gonade and Event compering was done by Prof Sadanand Choudhary.
