iPops, iPad, iDo miss the smell of paint!

"It is as good as a painting created on canvas" echoed voices along the room. K V Sridhar aka Pops, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett recently showcased his painting geniuses through iPops, a collection of his 28 paintings created on iPad. Curated by Niyatee Shinde, the art show is being held at the Scarecrow Art Gallery in Fort, Mumbai from June 11th to 30th, 2011. Two special previews were organsied on June 10 and 11 for the city's advertising and media and the art appreciators respectively.

Titled ipops, the exhibition offers insights into Pops' artistic passion and abilities, needless to say the potential of the iPAD. Talking about exhibiting his aspirational work only after 30 years, Pops tells Adgully, "Advertising consumes everything, it not just consumes your physical energy, creative energy but it also consumes physical time. So by great difficulty people can make time for their family. Frankly when you are young you have all the time to paint but you dont have the money to buy paints. However in between I tried to paint from 2002-2003, I spent a fabolous amount of money and bought a sea-side studio at Mahim but I hardly went there to piant. So finally I gave up saying to myself that one cannot possibly ride two horses."

But the moment iPad came it gave Pops a lot freedom. "For starters it as good as real and you can paint wherever you want. So in fact each time I was taking a flight I could finish two paintings," he adds.

So will any of your ads include your beautiful work?

Pops says, "I think both are two different things, advertising will make one more mature as a creative person. So whatever creative instinct you will have you will always use it in advertising. But I used my illustrations when I had just joined advertising. I had joined as a finishing artist, then I became an illustrator, later I became a visualizer and that point in time I used quite a bit of illustrations."

Conceptualized and executed on the iPad and printed on canvas, the paintings depict rural women in all their simplicity, sensuality and sensitivity. Painted by an inherent genius, stark lines define forms and human anatomy held in primary colors. A certain naivety layers the work in the rendering and in the expressions on the faces of these women who people the canvases. Though executed with some ease, they are an exploration of the creative possibilities of certain software as visually impasto layers flatly on the canvas surface and appears tangible.

Having spent 30 years in advertising, Pops, as he is endearingly called across generations amongst the media and advertising fraternity, goes back to his first love ' painting. The sale proceeds of iPops art show would be donated to an NGO working for the welfare of marginalized children. Talking about this Pops, says, "I do not need money. Finally at the end of the day if you start something one needs a lot of motivation for it. My motivation has always been to take back something good and hence the proceeds are going to go for charity. Plus I think the fact that the money has to go to charity pushed me more and more. I am very committed to humanity and hopefully I can paint a tribute to Late M.F.Hussain."

So we ask him- "Pops, do you miss the smell of paint?"

Pat comes the reply, "I do, I do. Infact when you are actually painting after a while you forget that you are painting in a virtual world. I used a Stylus to paint, so when one day someone called, I put the Stylus in my pocket and I immediately took it off my pocket thinking it was a paint brush and it could spoil my shirt. Of course you miss the smell of turpentine. Moreover the whole process of cleaning after painting is in itself so tedious however when one paints on a virtual world they are exempted of this procedure."

This initiative has garnered support from Tata capital. Later this month, the exhibition will be followed by workshops for young artists in fine and commercial arts conducted by Pops. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]