Patients by day, Paintings by night
Consultant Dr Samrat Bose talks about his art and how he has merged the two world of his profession and passion.
How did the idea of an exhibition come about?
The idea of an exhibition took roots before the pandemic; sometime in late 2019. The Board Room was explored as a venue but then everything changed over the next few months. As we came out of the pandemic, I thought this might be the right time to re-kindle the idea with the advent of summer.
How did your love/passion for art come about?
I have always had a fondness for the creative arts for as long as I can remember. In school back in India, we were sometimes given projects to design advertisements for popular products in art class. I never had any training worth mentioning but have explored photography, writing and painting over the last several years. I have also loved to sketch since childhood, and more recently, have been doing a lot of line drawings on my phone screen using just my finger.
What’s your favourite piece you’ve created and what was the inspiration around it?
There's no one favourite piece, but if one were to press, I would refer to the painting series I have done on the Indian epic The Mahabharata, which was displayed in the recent exhibition (watch out for the date for next exhibiton if you missed it). This is a sort of coming home; I started exploring art mainly through western art but over the last year have gone back to studying Indian artists who are not really well-known to the west, which, may I add, is a loss for these parts of the world.
If anyone was interested in purchasing your pieces outside of the exhibitions – can they?
I had never thought of this previously but if someone was interested, why not? At the end of the day, every artist has an inherent need to be appreciated. I can happily say that I have been asked to do a canvas since the exhibition. However, I would still want this to be a source to relax and explore my passions rather than being a principal profession, as then I fear it may lose some of the sparkle when dragged towards sole commercial reasons to do art. Some of my work is also available as prints from www.saatchi.com and www.artrepreneur.com.
Word of advice/encouragement for anybody thinking about submitting their work for the next exhibition?
Unless you do it, you never know what you have in you. Most importantly, all of us will retire at some point and carrying a passion through will add that extra dimension to life.
When’s the next exhibition?
I had initially planned this as an annual event. However, there is word floating that there is some demand to do another one near the Christmas/New Year . So, watch this space, and more importantly, this is the opportunity to display your talents outside your professional life AND be appreciated for it.
