NEW DELHI, Oct 25:
At the age of 88, a former Indian Army soldier continues to pursue his love for art, sketching portraits and landscapes exploring a variety of mediums ranging from scraps of notepaper to disposal tarpaulin and once even on the back of a rail ticket!
Artworks created by the retired Lieutenant Colonel Jagdish Chandra Asthana over a period of 60-odd years, were collected and collated for an exhibition at the Lalit Kala Akademi here recently.
Born in Lucknow, Asthana who studied at Hardoi joined the EME corps of the Indian Army in 1952 and as a commanding officer participated in the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
“My father had never made a conscious effort to display his work. He never had any formal training in art but was always interested in drawing and painting. Over the years he had made countless sketches and artworks which he gifted to friends and family. We have tried to collect as much as possible and put it together for an exhibition,” says Brigadier Amul Asthana, the artist’s son.
Amul recounts his father’s days as an engineering student at the Banaras Hindu University.
“He used to take a boat to go to college and during the boat ride he used to sketch. One of the drawings we managed to retrieve was that of an impression of the ghats at Varanasi done by him on the back of train ticket,” says Amul.
Another painting by the octogenarian artist can be found at the officers’ mess at the Yol cantonment in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.
“My grandfather was the garrison engineer at the Yol Cantonment, and he was responsible for building the Italian Prisoner of War camps. Even today if you go there you can find my father’s artwork in the mess,” says Amul.
Another set of works reflect Asthana’s love for nature as seen in his depiction of the Kashmir, especially a yesteryear portrayal of the old city of Srinagar with its narrow and bustling lanes has been captured in detail.
Amul says his father had done an internship in Kashmir and during that time had been invited to display his works at the Nedou Hotel, which offered him a complimentary stay for 3 days.
Asthana says “Kashmir is very beautiful, I have also travelled through the length and breadth of the country, mostly because I was in the Army and after I retired I have gone to remote places in Odisha and the beauty of the art done by the tribals there is amazing.”
The artist says he recognised that he loved to draw and paint after paying a visit to his elder sister who was a student of Shantiniketan.
“I was very young at that time and my sister was eight years older to me. I stayed with her for 5 to 6 days and was very happy to see so much art,” says Asthana.
The artist has also travelled the world and his paintings depict the beauty of Venice, the birds in the morning sun, the snow clad peaks and the village life in Bhutan.
The soldier artist who resides now in Secunderabad has also delved into sculptures using cement brick and other materials converting some of them into wall murals.
Another artwork most recently by Asthana has been on an old cloth painting purchased during his visit to Bali. “My father painted over the old painting to create a new work,” says Atul Asthana, another son of the artist.
“We went on road trips in our DKW, a pre second world war German car and have seen the countryside mountains and other beautiful landscapes, all that perhaps has been translated into paintings and sketches by my father,” says Atul. (PTI)
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