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Monday 21 November 2011

FEATURED ARTIST-PRITESH FROM QUILL ME SOFTLY

Hi all,
the first featured artist here in my new blog is pritesh from"Quill me softly".Very recently i came across here blog n i am impressed with her quilling works.In fact,it made me want to start my quilling again.So i thought of asking her to be the first featured artist n she happily agreed.But only after i saw her article i came to know she is good in paintings too.
Over to pritesh...



I am Pritesh (actually, Dr. Pritesh now), working as post-doctoral researcher in Semiconductor Materials Physics division of Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Though a scientist by profession, I can safely claim to have been an artist at heart always.

My earliest memories of practicing art go back to my school notebooks where I used to outline my hand and draw hyper-dense mehndi patterns while waiting for the school bus to pick us up in the afternoons. My mother was constantly upset with me for 'wasting' those pages but I continued. Somehow, I was always bad at art taught in school (I nearly flunked my exam once!). I had my own style and found it very difficult to learn any other.

By the time I was 13-14 yrs old, I was drawing reasonably well. My brother was always the inspiration, being SO good at drawing. I borrowed his colours and brushes and drew a painting which was selected for school display board. I guess, that made me believe in my capabilities.

Serious attempts at Art largely happened during my M.S. at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. I was finally 'earning' and hence, didn't feel guilty for spending on Art. IISc had huge open spaces in hostels and I meddled with Rangolis. After I met my (to-be) husband, my Rangoli style changed too, instead of making tendril-rich and floral Rangolis, I started making realistic, life-like Rangolis.

Somewhere around that time, I started experimenting with b/w and colour sketching as well. I was surprised to know my own flair for realistic drawing. While living alone, working as a post-doc at Gent University (Belgium), I had ample time on my hands and I started experimenting with sketching 'people' I knew. And I loved doing those sketches.

Quilling, the latest acquisition in my skill set, was something I had never considered as my cup of tea. My sister convinced me to try it and the first trial itself convinced me that THIS was something I would love to do, for a long time to come.

I read voraciously on the Internet (during my parental leave after the birth of my son) and discovered the blogs of quilling stalwarts like Suzana Ilic and Inna Dorman. I was so stumped by Suzana's creations that I vowed to try to be as close to her quilling expertise as I could manage to. Her unusual designs and extraordinarily good miniature work haunted me, literally. My mind was on a roll and ideas were springing out faster than I could convert them to quilling! I was going berserk! :) And slowly, I bought proper quilling tools. The proper tools made a world of a difference to the quality of quilling I could do.

I quill largely in my spare time (after my son goes to sleep) but am thinking up of new quilling motifs 24/7! LOL.

In partnership with my friend, Sayali, we have started an online venture, Aadyaa Originals to sell personalized quilled creations. We have already made and delivered a few orders, mostly to India. We also plan to undertake realistic sketching (portraits, specially). I am planning to take a break from Science (starting this January) and pursue Art full time. I hope our venture will succeed and we will be able to spread the joy of Art far and wide.


Have a loot at some of her beautiful works..





7 comments:

Kasia Wojtasik said...

Congratulations to Dr. Pritesh!!! Pritesh, I surprised by the science field your work in! It's so mystical - physics, chemistry, programming etc. - for me!

Sathya said...

Awesome Works Dear Pritesh..Thanks Kavitha for featuring her and making the world to know such a talented artistic soul.....Happy for u dear post doc!!

Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti said...

A bit more about Pritesh since I know her for nearly a decade now. She is a superb singer with a naturally melodious voice. A good dancer. A good speaker. A good leader... Probably a blessed soul who doesn't have to struggle like others to find and appreciate beauty and joy. There's a little child somewhere in her. And that child launches her in no time on the voyage of digging those same articles of beauty from within her mind. That child gives her the versatility that we all friends know her for.
I don't know if it's in place, but must mention that her husband is another blessed soul with another huge set of talents. Mostly brilliant; often genius. He too has a little child in him somewhere. What brings these two talented souls together is that child in them I mentioned above. :) Probably, that child is avatar-ed as a physical being called Anvesh! :)

Pritesh Dagur said...

Thank you so much Kate! You're a sweetheart! :-)
Thanks a lot Sathya Kala, you are really too kind :)
And Sujit, you know both of us so well! :) Being married to a talented soul and having a HUGE set of talented friends to go with it, what do I have to ask for! :)

Thanks a lot Kavitha, for featuring me :)

Indira Tanwar said...

So nice to know about Pritesh!! We've had doctors and investment bankers in our crafts circle and now we have a scientist too!! Thanks for featuring her Kavitha, else we wudn't have known so many aspects of her personality :)

Cheers,
Indira
http://arty-sorts.blogspot.com/

Kavya N said...

Hi....
I just love her creations.... They are amazing...
First time to ur blog and I just love ur works!!
Thanks for sharing!!

Kavya
www.nkavya.blogspot.com

Handmade Cards by Archana said...

Nice to know about Pritesh.She is so very talented.loved the quilled creations.Thanks for featuring her!