Why Pratik Sharma's paintings of cars will blow every auto lover's mind with some painted torque

An artist's love for his muse is inspiring. For Pratik Sharma, it's all about cars. Rashmi Patil speaks to the artist who brings them alive through his paintings 
Pratik Sharma has completed over 300 paintings of cars
Pratik Sharma has completed over 300 paintings of cars

Toy, remote control, real. These are all adjectives to describe almost every kid's favourite toy — cars. Whether it is playing with a car or growing up to drive one, this automobile constitutes a large part of our life. But there are some people who loves cars more than others — some collect them, while some restore them. But have you heard of someone creating awesome art with them? Mumbaikar Pratik Sharma does. Like a true artist, Pratik observes each and every car and paints them in his own unique style. The 32-year-old says, "Cars are something that I have admired since childhood and I have grown up observing every detail — shape, size and colour."

What led this artist, who has painted almost every car from a Ferrari to an Audi and a BMW to a Benz, to fall in love with cars is an interesting story. He explains, "I come from a family of distinguished artists. Growing up, I would always carry a pen, colour pencils and paper with me. Once, my father bought me two toy cars. I loved them so much that I not only played with them but also painted pictures of them. That's how my love affair with cars and painting them began. I used to read car magazines and re-imagine these cars as paintings. Gradually, I honed my skills. I did my graduation in Product Design from Raffles Design Institute in Singapore."

If you've already checked out his work, then you'd know that what makes Pratik's paintings unique are the black and white cars against a colour background. He says, "In the process of honing my skills, I discovered my style of keeping it clean and black and white. If I'm painting a red car, then the background will be red while the car itself will be in black and white. I imagine or visualise the parts of the car in a unique way too. For example, headlights appear like eyes to me, some cars appear like horses and some like women. When I paint them on canvas, I ensure to showcase them the way I visualise them."

In 2011, Pratik painted 12 pictures of Audi cars exclusively for an Audi calendar. He received an overwhelming response from his friends and family for this. From then on, there was no looking back. "Every day, I think of different ideas to paint these automobiles and I love to evolve my skills rather than sticking to a particular thumb rule," says Pratik who studied relief sculpture under Leonid Lerman at The Art Students League in New York in 2012.

Surprisingly, the lockdown has made no difference to Pratik and his work. In fact, it has given him more time to work on his ideas and create new version of his paintings. "There has been no difference in my work timings. I am getting more commissioned work now and I recently painted a picture of a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT for actor Rohit Roy. He is a regular visitor at my exhibitions and has seen my journey from scratch. He was ecstatic when he saw the painting. I hope to be part of international exhibitions in the future." 

You can also check his paintings and follow him on Instagram @artistpratiksharma

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
EdexLive
www.edexlive.com