"Hard Work Always Pays Off"

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1. Tell us more about your background and journey.

For the past 7 years, Art has been my hobby and I never looked at it as a career option. The lockdown changed my whole perspective towards Art and I decided to turn my hobby into a career option.

For three months, I started devoting a considerable amount of time towards it and it has been going great since then. Speaking of academic background, I am pursuing an MBA in Finance from Nirma University.

Also, I am currently working as an Intern at Kotak Securities. Though it has been hard to balance my time between my career and passion, it has been worth to continue working hard for both the things.

I am constantly learning and improving my art skills and I believe there is still a lot more to explore in this field. Till now, I have tried my hands on canvas paintings, sketch, hatching sketch, digital illustration, rangolis, glass paintings, and next in the line is colored sketch and line art.

2. When did you decide you wanted to be a painter?

It has always been my hobby and one of the reasons for changing it into my career was my friends. I started my Instagram page because one of my best friends forced me to do it. I was having second thoughts about being able to manage it successfully, but eventually, it all worked out.

I am glad that I have friends to always seek their opinions in the art I create as well as in the marketing ideas. Having the right company, which supports you and acknowledges your work is very important in your life.

3. Is it a financially stable career?

I cannot comment much on this topic, because it has been only two months since I started doing commissioned work. But I believe in two things -

Focus upon the quality of your art, stand out from the crowd and advertise about your artwork in the best possible way. Ultimately the real talent will get noticed, and appreciated by the people.
When we talk about a financially stable career, the only advice is that never rely on a single source of income.

4. Who is your favorite painter? Why?

Why limit ourselves to a single artist, when we can explore different artworks through the medium of social media platforms. I love spending 45-60 minutes per day exploring different artworks and learn something new every day.

5. Where do you get inspired to create art?

I always get inspired to make an art piece of the things which I love and am fond of. I lookout for the details of the objects or ideas and try to create something new and unique by reflecting on the important details of those art pieces.

6. What does your typical day look like?

As I have mentioned earlier, that currently, I am trying to devote my time to both my career as wells as passion, so the daily routine schedule seems to be hectic.

The normal office hours i.e. 10 AM - 6 PM are for an internship, focusing on my career in Finance. Whenever I get bored with my internship work and want to take a short break, I utilize that time to explore new elements about my passion.

After an hour of refreshment and having dinner with my family, I devote the remaining time of my day for improving my art skills, learning a new form of art, working on my pending orders, and thinking about new ways for marketing my work. The free time at the weekend is also utilized for my artwork.

7. What piece of advice would you like to give to future aspiring painters?

I am not yet experienced enough to advise future aspirants. But, I would surely like to share my belief about the key to success -

Always keep learning and improving your skills.
Stand out from the crowd. There is intense competition in this field, but don't lose hope, start small, work hard, believe in your work, and eventually, it will be worth it.
It is good to have more than one career option, just like I am pursuing. When you are trying to turn your passion into a career, do not consider it as Plan B or as a second option. Devote an equal amount of time for your passion, if you are serious about it.

I would like to conclude by saying that – Hard work always pays off.

- Het Gandhi

IG: artscape_24

- Interviewed By: Soumya Jain