Art is in the air, the Nagpur twins Swaroop and Taniya Kshirsagar tell us. The duo, whose Instagram page lets__st_art has been up and running since August 2019, not only post pictures of their paintings but also make a small 'making' video and release it on IGTV for people to learn their techniques. Swaroop tells us how it started, "When we were doing our graduation in Fine Arts, we would take drawing classes for children and college students at home. As soon as we started getting good feedback, we started thinking of what more could be done. That's when we went through a trial and error process before we started making posterised paintings."
While Swaroop has specialised in sculpture making, her sister Taniya majored in painting from the Central India School of Fine Arts. Currently, they are doing their post-grad in Fine Arts in Pune. Swaroop says, "Both Taniya and I started exploring art using a posterised painting style and we loved it. We have also started getting commissioned work once we posted some paintings on our Instagram page. Posterised painting is all about blending colours and making the person look lively in the portrait. We have made eight such posturised paintings and they are posted on our Instagram page also."
Apart from these paintings, these 24-year-old twins have also explored making gouache paintings and even made videos to post them on their Instagram page. Aside from this, they have created bookmarks, cards having some motivational messages and a wide variety of landscape paintings also. During this lockdown, the twin painters have been conducting online classes for people of all the age groups. "We mostly conduct workshops on the posterised paintings for which we are famous. Most of the people who attended our online painting classes were happy to learn how to make these posterised paintings as it looks realistic. I remember, there was a medical student who wanted to learn something new and thoroughly enjoyed making these paintings. We know that you can't learn at one go, especially when you are a beginner and that's what makes it more interesting."
Soon after their post-graduation, Swaroop and Taniya are planning to start their own enterprise where they can create paintings on their own and print their designs. Aside from this, they are working to start their own website. Swaroop says, "We know that technology is taking over even in the art and crafts industry but products that are handmade also have their own value in terms of attachment. Even in the case of posterised paintings, some people make it using software. But at the end, people will love an artist's handmade work than a technology made work."