It was a family entrenched in the arts. Father was into theatre besides being a high school teacher. Mother, a housewife, was an artist. Younger sister was into dance and music. The entire neighborhood in Howrah city where they lived was a cultural hub. So, it seems as if Sudipto Adhikari had to simply take up the brush and his family backed him up.
But, no. Strangely, the parents felt he should focus on the academics and do well in school. “Why are you wasting your time painting?” they asked him whenever he indulged in painting. Sudipto, an obedient son, did toe the conventional line and began his career as an executive in Pidlite Industries. But his fingers itched whenever he had a pen and paper in his disposal. He loved drawing cartoons and his favorite characters were, Tintin and Asterix. He was even called Tintin by his colleagues!
Soon he realized that he didn’t need to copy from anywhere and created his own cartoons for his satisfaction. It came in handy in his profession life. Despite his role in the accounts department, he was asked to create posters and marketing materials. But it could never make up for the real thing.
He married a doctor and lived in Mumbai, for a few years before returning to the hometown to look after the ageing parent.
Pidlite considered his plight and transferred him to Kolkata to head a new division. The company had launched brushes, acrylic and painting materials – just the stuff he needed as an artist – and he was to develop the market for it. This gave Sudipto an opportunity to work with artists.
However, he was getting bored with the monotony of the job. Sudipto had lost his mother in his twenties. But his father and in-laws were in their 80s, needing the support of their children. The in-laws were also running a decade old nursing home of high repute. Now they were too old to manage it.
It seemed logical that Sudipto should get involved and manage at least the administrative side of the clinic. But this left him with plenty of time to paint.
Sudipto is well-read. Spirituality inspires his art. It’s hard to classify his paintings in any conventional category. But his paintings are an expression of nature through spirituality, or spirituality through nature.
“Titles are essential to complete my paintings,” Sudipto points out and one can see why. There is vibrance and a subtle intricacy that can make one miss the significance of his work.
As a child, Sudipto had visited the art gallery, Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata and wanted to have his works displayed there one day. To his delight, within two years of starting to paint, he was able to conduct shows there and had the pleasure of people buying his paintings. “I don’t price them too high,” he explains. “Often we see the imitation adorning the walls of people’s homes, as the original is priced too high,” he points out. He would rather put the original within the reach of the people.
The contentment reflects in his voice as he speaks about the grandeur of the nature and the spirit of the divinity. He tries to capture it in his works. “I am still learning,” he says with humility. But to top it all, he sounds happy that he is able to do what he loves most.
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