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..