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"Painting is a
spontaneous outburst of emotions," asserts the
city’s favourite artist, Mr.Bal Wad and this conviction is
echoed in each of his paintings. In fact not only paintings,
but pots, ceramics, sculptures, murals, mosaics and
not to be left behind, ‘computer art’. For this multi-faceted
artist, there is hardly any art form he hasn’t dabbled
in. At 74, he has had three minor heart attacks, a by
pass surgery and a cereberal haemorrhage, but considers these
trivial hiccups- and refuses to sit back but works round
the clock with enough energy to put a man half his age
to shame. From
humble beginnings, this master of brush strokes studied painting
at the Institute of Modern Art, Pune and went on to win
scholarships to London and then on to Belgrade where he received
his Diploma in Museology. He is a gold medallist in
Mumbai
University and had topped it while receiving his masters.
He has been the head of department in Poona school of
art and later also the Sanavar and then moved to Mumbai where
he worked with Camlin, India and remains on their Board
of Directors. He has held nearly 50 exhibitions all over
the world. That is a long way from the boy who earned 3 paise
at the age of eleven, selling hand made toys on a pavement
at Sadashiv Peth.
It was in 1982 that he started the creative club with the objective of
helping women stand on their feet through the
medium
of fine arts. It has over the years provided a
platform for artists to express
themselves with a free flow of exchange of
ideas. It is not an art school- although as ardent
admirer of Tagore and Vinoba Bhave and suscribes to the
gurukul system, he maintains that it is not him, but
‘nature’ that is the guru and
he’s merely the senior-most member of the
club. The club is situated in Ashoka Nagar in
the
large verandah - there are no doors and the students have
no fixed timings. There are a variety of media -acrylic,
oils ceramic, clay, wood, stone, textile
pottery, metal, cane, leather,
charcoal, pastels and silk screen - to
choose from. One can walk
in at any time and
use the materials of whichever
medium they prefer, as there are no
restrictions in this club other than that, of your own imagination.
The age varies from 6 - 70 years as does the occupation- people gather
here from all walks of life- the common
factor being their love for art. Fees is Rs. 6000 for painting
and Rs. 8000 for ceramics, a year. But he does consider,
students unable to pay the fees as he sees in them the
struggling artist that he once was. He has also found success
in guiding handicapped children overcome their drawbacks
and has produced fine painters like Rohan Sonalkar.
According to him, Rohan is a superb painter with fantastic
colour schemes and is proud of the fact that he has
sold a good number of paintings.
He establishes his own personal
rapport with each student and helps him
develop his potential. He doesn’t believe in
teaching
the student to imitate or follow the teacher. Instead he wants them to
recognize their own creativity, to
recognize
the beauty around us, within us and to be able to portray
it expressively. As he puts it, "I want leaders and not
followers."
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