The pen is mightier than the sword. True. Over the ages, authors and scribes have proved this adage time and again. Now, making this pen a brush without its colourful palette is a seldom seen stroke of an artist, who definitely requires some extra skill to lend a vent to his quilled passion. Meet Soumyen Sarkar, a middle-aged advocate and an Income-Tax consultant — when put under the baton of his professional pressure. But at his leisure, he takes up the identity of a sketcher, painter, photographer and a die-hard musicman. All this of course, comes with a deep-rooted penchant on his part.
Deftly lending a pair of pictorial wings to his flight of fantasy, the artist can doodle scores of scenic landscapes, hill-top views, forests, roads, wilderness, pathways, rivers, vistas, avenues and edifices rapidly with an effortless ease. Drawn from his memories and improvisational instincts, his mind captures a beautiful spot much like a camera-lens. Clubbing an array of 44 such eye-arresting sketches into a booklet titled Memories And Sketches, which according to the artist is his maiden collection, the series was published this July. Indeed, a collector’s item, the attractive compilation is priced at `300. Incidentally, “the entire sale proceeds will be funded to aid the visually impaired people,” the good-hearted Samaritan says.
Primarily using pen and ink, besides a charcoal pencil for his sketchy leanings, Sarkar explains his preference for employing such specific tools of application. “Well, this is not a normal graphite pencil that we commonly use. The charcoal bears a good shape, while the lines and strokes drawn with it are absolutely near-perfect. Also, for filling in the blank spaces to induce a colouring effect, it becomes quite effective to the sketching craft. Plus, the impression left behind is durable too.”
Delving into an art that isn’t run-of-the-mill but slightly different, Sarkar’s predilection deliberately steered clear of paintings in oils, pastels, acrylic shades or mixed-media tones. “I was first taken by the craft of sketching back in school. My interest grew, even as I enrolled for scouting sessions and was asked to sketch and depict in my logbook,” shares the self-taught artist, who then studied at the reputed Mitra Institution.
With youngsters seemingly more inclined towards painting, Sarkar admits that there is a palpable dearth of thriving sketchers and cartoonists on the artscape. “We undoubtedly need to archive it on cyberspace. This is an art that manifests a different style and is even hassle-free to pursue. It consumes minimum time and energy and only demands a modest pen-and-paper as key equipment in an artist’s kitty,” he vouches from his practical experience. A continuous practice of 25 years has enabled him to perfect his hand at scribbling his imagination on his precious notebook. Cities like Aizawl, Shillong, the Mall at Darjeeling, the Santhal village in Shantiniketan, the Maithon Dam or the Sunderban creeks in West Bengal, Pelling in Sikkim and foreign vignettes like Grimsby in England, the old cities of Assissi and Venice in Italy, glaciers and peninsula in New Zealand — all this and much more come alive in Sarkar’s sketch-diary.
Meanwhile having dabbled in water chromes, Sarkar confesses that the art of sketching ultimately stole his heart away from other fine art forms. This particular booklet comprises a collection, delineated from 1986 till 2009. Noticeably, the northeast zone, especially the provinces of Mizoram and Meghalaya, have been thoroughly highlighted in Sarkar’s works. “I know, these are like virgin sites and needed to be explored in greater depths as compared to the rest of India. However, as my job profile suggests, I have to travel far and wide and visit many places, even in the remotest interiors for the purpose of auditing. I have a yearning desire to scale far up to the state of Nagaland someday in the future, provided there are no concerning security issues to frown at,” he affirms, recalling his stint in the lap of lofty precipices.
Armed with an intricate and minutely detailed craft, Sarkar sheds light on its inimitable accomplishme-nt. “Sometimes, you need to flow with the tide of your thought process, gathering vividly and distinctly in your mind. A single idea is woven over time — it hovers around for a short spell and then further develops to finally get conceived, say after four days from the date of seeing a striking sight. You see, there is perceptible life in nature, at times mobile and at another, still and motionless. It is important to grab this passing momentary phase and the prevalent space in one’s sketch-marks, instantly at his pen-tip.”
Probably post retirement, one may catch this low-profile artist penning away his passion in a carefree mood at some distant peak-point, with a pair of thick-rimmed glasses reclined on his nose, a piping-hot cuppa in his hand and a quiet pet lying by his side, while his fingers busily sketch at their swiftest best. A soulful sojourn, we say.