Rohan Hegde

Born in Mumbai, India, I have always been interested in Art from a young age. When my parents saw that I might show some promise in art, they allowed me to pursue this on my own time. I started drawing and have always kept producing some art be it portraits, cartoons or paintings. Even did a couple of small illustrations for a media company. Later on, I got interested in Abstract art and worked on a couple of canvases. Seeing my work, I ended up getting a few commissions and from then on, I haven't looked back.  More recently, I have developed an interest in Figurative Sculpture. 

Painting and Sculpting relaxes me. It takes me into a world that is inside my mind, a parallel universe of sorts where my mind is at peace and I only think of the artwork in front of me.

I work mainly on large-ish canvas art doing Abstract artwork. I don't specifically have a process. I guess I am still working that one out. I currently try various processes to achieve different results. I like texture in my art, something you can touch and feel. I believe texture in art brings the feeling of realism to the artwork. I splash paint, pour paint, spread paint using various tools including brushes, palette knives & window cleaning tools. 

I create lots of layers with paint and then scrape paint off to expose lower layers creating a depth into the painting. 

With Sculpture, I use different types of Clay, grey clay and polymer clay for my work.  Working on portraits , other characters depending on the project on hand. I do have some of the works cast in resin as well.

For my abstract artwork, my main go to paints are Acrylic paints. I find them easy to work with and fast drying which is great when painting Abstracts.  I am able to create layers of paint and then expose the underlaying layers of paint to create exciting effects. I use a lot of different materials to create the desired effects of texture on my work.  I tend to use tile adhesive, Gesso, Acrylic binder and other moulding gels and pastes. I have even used Stone powder on occasions for some of my paintings.  Using palette knives, I shape the texture how I want it to look and then let it all dry, before pouring paint on it. Paintings are finalised with a few layers of matt varnish to make the colours pop a bit and protect the painting.

I draw inspiration from various artists around the globe. One of my favourites being Gehard Richter.  I also like observing old buildings and decaying walls to get ideas for my abstract art. There is something very beautiful about layers of paint on walls peeling over time revealing the depth of paint and colour.