78-year-old Thane man rediscovers his love for sketching portraits

Kala Bhavan in Thane has organised a three-day exhibition of artist Bapu Patwardhan’s portraits of famous personalities.

Kala Bhavan in Thane has organised a three-day exhibition of artist Bapu Patwardhan’s portraits of famous personalities.

HT Image

“My artwork requires basic materials — drawing paper and pencil from my grandchild’s pencil box. I used to sketch when I was seven years old but after I completed my education I found it difficult to get time as I was always travelling for work. For 45 years, I had not touched the pencil for drawing,” said 78-year-old Patwardhan, a resident of Brahmand.

One day, after retirement, his grandson requested Patwardhan to make a portrait of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi . That is how his love for sketching rekindled. He has not received any formal training. Patwardhan had sketched 12 portraits in 1963 when he was in college. He visited RK studios on Raj Kapoor’s birthday and got autographs on all of them.

“I feel these black and white portraits capture more expressions. If you notice, each portrait has a different expression. Every day I spend two to three hours sketching,” added Patwardhan.