STORY BEHIND THE ART OF DAMODAR LAL GURJAR

Weird, Wild, & Wonderful

Second New York Botanical Garden Triennial Exhibition

2014 - 2016

Mushrooms on Mustard Stover 

Panoleolus sp.

This is a very special painting to me which perfectly fits the theme of this show. These are very common wild mushrooms that grow on the mustard stover after the harvest in the rural farmlands of Rajasthan (India). My motive behind this subject was to paint something very common and yet very beautiful in order to promote my regional flora at the international platform.

People often ignore these mushrooms, especially because their color scheme makes them blend in with their surroundings.

I find the mushrooms very fascinating. The Weird thing about my subject is that it does not have bright and beautiful colors. I have tried to create the same feel as it is in nature by providing it with the same background as one might find it in its natural habitat. As we all know, mushrooms are very soft and fragile, so to bring that texture into the painting was a challenge and necessity, as I wanted to preserve its natural Wildness in the painting. The Wonderful part about my subject was the unique shape of the subject and the composition. 

My technique is tempera and gouache. It is a studio work which takes a long time to finish. Even the preparation is time consuming, as I start out in the field, after understanding the color mix to get just the exact tone of color. Then I bring it all into the studio, get situated and then I start painting very detailed brush work. I’d like to mention here that the background is not spray work, it is all done by brush, the same as the subject. The detailed brush strokes can be seen under a magnifying glass. To do such a finely detailed job, I use my hand made squirrel hair brush - we cannot buy them anymore. I want the viewer to see the soft and fragile texture of fresh wild mushrooms which have just sprouted out after the rain. I really hope everyone can get the sense as if they were touching them in nature.

I like to challenge myself in painting various different kinds of subjects which attract me and speak to me, so this was just another one for my craving! My solo show, Enduring Perfection, at the Hunt Institute in 2000 had many unique and interesting subjects that I chose from my surroundings.

Editor’s note:

The late Hunt Institute Curator of Art, James J. White, described Gurjar's technique in his preface to the Enduring Perfection catalogue: "Gurjar is influenced by the traditional school of painting, but his technique is a blend of the traditional and contemporary. He is skilled in depicting textures in his subjects --- whether petals, onion skins, pine needles, ceramic pots, or feathers………Certainly he is one of India's leading artists of natural-history themes." In his catalog essay, Dr. M. K. Sharma Sumahendra described the level of detail in Gurjar's work: "Once while viewing his original works close at hand, I was stunned to see the perfect study revealing surat and sirat of the subject painted. Surat means outer likeness, and sirat means inner character of the subject. One can smell the odour of onion while viewing the painting of two onions by Damodar."

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