Sahil Sharma

Face is the mirror of the man. We know and identify people around us with their faces, even though there are many other gestures that may denote us. It is no wonder then that artists since thousands of years have been painting heads of gods, kings, loved ones and even their pets to express their experience of co-habitation. Sahil’s whole body of work is his experience of people around him which he defines with bold, wide-eyed, intense coloured faces. His faces or heads are deeply emotional, they exude immense expression and are paintings of his experience. In these terms they cease to be attached to the people or their bodies and become individual entities.

Sahil’s compositions are different, if not unique in their approach. He treats the whole surface of the canvas/paper end to end to draw his exuberant drawings with thick brush strokes. Many a times, he covers the swap of hair with a single brush stroke, or swipe of a knife and then treats the eyes nose with equal dexterity. The faces are what people are for him, not what they look like. They are Sahil’s portraits, not portraits of people. They in this sense mindscapes. There are no models. It is the whole society that proves as inspiration, subject matter to him. The heads are thus some in square, some circles, some ovals, some triangular, simplified to the core of the momentary expression. Each head is a singular thought, a glimpse of the personality observed and painted as a gist of a wholesome experience.

Sahil’s forte are his colours. So much are these colours embedded in his creative process that his portraits could be colour portraits of his impressions. He does not thus follow the principles of colour schemes; those do not bother him, his impressions are harmonious with the final portrait. His choice of colours is thus quite a bit of saturated hues rather than tints or shades. Sahil, it seems, sees people through colours, and they are the colours that represent the personalities of the faces, that have deep associations in his intuitions. It is endearing to see how one could be so simplistic about experiencing people. At this point it becomes essential to mention that Sahil is specially gifted to see more than an average person; because he sees and listens with his eyes. And that almost all his portraits are without ears, which don’t seem to matter to him in undergoing life and people.    

Sahil has recently begun his career as an artist and there is much more of his talent that will flourish in the days to come. His works have naivety in them, that gives an impression that’s young but is at the same time quite pure in countenance. He certainly needs to progress more in his oeuvre but his singular style is already evident in these heads. Sahil is a self-taught artist. He is specially abled, having hearing. Sahil Sharma has done his basic education from K.D.N. Shruti school of deaf in Mumbai and further schooling from Monal Public School , Shimla, completing his matriculation from the National institute of Open Schooling. He holds a diploma in Web designing & a certificate in 3D Animation & Multimedia. He has done two solo Exhibitions in Mumbai so far. His artworks are in the collections of many renowned art collector of India. Sahil currently lives and works from Shimla.