Painting is seen as one of most niche forms of art, but speed painting is a rare skill where an artefact is painted at a breathtaking pace. 35-year-old Vilas Nayak from Mangaluru is being hailed as Asia’s first speed painter who paints on stage in just 3 minutes.
Vilas is unique and so is his art. He had started painting when he was just 3. He began speed painting 2004.
“There was a point when I failed (in academics) and was not so confident. But when I concentrated on painting and fine arts my confidence and dedication started reflecting in academics as well. I was a rank holder in college,” smiles Vilas. “Parents often tell their children not to focus on anything else but concentrate on studies — I don’t believe in that personally. I feel your passion for anything helps you grow in every aspect,” Vilas told The New India Express..
Making your passion your profession is quite a decision as it brings many concerns including the financial ones and Vilas thinks one should always do it if he has a comfortable fall back option.
“I earn an average of one to two lakh rupees per show in India. If it’s outside the country I charge more. I do charity events for free though. When you follow your passion and work 24/7, you do have advantages too. Whatever I have earned in the last eight years, I wouldn’t have been able to earn the same at my corporate job,” he said.
Vilas had heard from someone about an artist who did the speed painting on stage 40 years ago and it triggered the hidden passion within Vilas.
“I followed it up with research over the internet and YouTube and I was inspired by Denny Dent, a US painter. I started with a small piece of paper, then moved to a bigger canvas. Facing the crowd was the biggest challenge as I grew up being an introvert kid. However, the confidence painting gives me is unexplainable,” he recalls.
He started it in 2004 and his first-speed paint took 15 minutes to get completed. But gradually, he bought his time in between three to six minutes to complete a painting.
Before he decided to breathe the art he loves every moment, Vilas was working as an HR executive in Bengaluru. He worked there for six years before quitting his job in 2011 to pursue his passion. “In 2010, I performed at a regional reality show in Karnataka, then waited one year to take part in India’s Got Talent in 2011. I was still working for IBM at that time. After the show, I waited for six more months before I finally quit my job. I wanted to see how it goes before I took such a massive step and start speed-painting full-time,” says Vilas.
Vilas was the finalist of the third season of India’s Got Talent and also the winner of ‘EC live quotient Most Innovative Act Award’ 2012 and he currently one of the known speed painting artists in the world. “After eight years of performing as a speed painter professionally, now the challenge is to come up with different themes and paintings for each show in a very short span of time. I am almost always travelling. It gives me extremely less time to ponder and come up with something unique every time,” he says, adding, “Every show is different too. What I paint at a college show it would not be the same as what it would be at a corporate event or a fundraiser. There’s a different crowd each time, they have separate vibes and that needs to be kept in mind while painting.”
For the budding artists and people who want to follow their passion, Vilas advised, “Take risks but calculated ones. You can’t just quit your job with no backup plan when you wish to do something ambitious. Follow your heart but use your brain too in the process. At the end of the day, you have to come back home and eat something to fill your stomach,” says Vilas. “I have seen a lot of aspiring artists just take to it because they have interest. One must have the right aptitude for it too. Thus, spend more time with yourself because that’s how you know what you are actually good at.”
source: http://www.indiatimes.com / IndiaTimes / Home> News> India / by Maninder Dabas / January 25th, 2019