Divinity on canvas

Andrew Paul, a city-based marketing professional has managed to achieve what most others can only dream about. This young Bengalurean’s work Mighty My Saviour was featured alongside M.F. Hussain’s Mother Teresa in the 2015 edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Arts in South Asia. Andrew is one of the youngest artists to be listed in the book.  

As a kid, Andrew used to sketch a lot. He also went to painting classes and participated in a number of competitions from school. Andrew says, “I never did serious art then and didn’t know the potential of the art world. It was only in college that I took up art seriously. I represented my college in many painting competitions, especially face painting.”  

Andrew decided to go public with his talent at Soul Sante, where his works received a disappointing response. “I couldn’t understand how the original works of artists weren’t given a second glance, while a wallpaper of Michael Jackson sold for Rs 7,000,” says Andrew, who then put up his works on Facebook and finally managed to sell them for 1,500 dollars to a psychology professor from Virginia, US. Since then, there’s been no stopping Andrew whose paintings now adorn India’s 27th richest billionaire Ajay Kasli’s walls.

The kind of art that Andrew does is called abstract expressionism, which is basically art created out of colours and not necessarily of solid form. Andrew took to art as a means to express himself and also to figure out how to create something that connects people at a much deeper level. A vivid vision of Christ kneeling down with blood gushing out of this face led to the making of his Mighty My Saviour. He says, “This vision really left me shaken up. I got up at 1 am and did the painting. I went on to put it up on Facebook. Clara Joseph, a professor at the University of Calgary, who was writing a thesis on how artists around the world were inspired by the Bible, got in touch with me. We had a conversation and then it was published.”  Clara used another painting of his as a cover for one of her books.

Andrew, who is a fan of the works of artists like Retna and Milind Nair, adds, “For her book The Face of the Other, Clara felt that one of my paintings called Redemption resonated very well with the poetry, so hat how the cover came about.”

Andrew, who is an alumnus of Commits College, was also part of an auction conducted by the Dubai government for the children affected by the war in Syria. He adds, “I tried to see that the money is being used properly for a serious cause. I also hope to be part of bigger events that will help create a change.”  

With a Master’s in Media and Marketing Communications, Andrew never considers himself to be a full-time artist. He adds, “I don’t want to just paint, I want to have a job too. This way you get to know many people and you get to listen to new stories.”

Andrew will be soon travelling to London do his Masters in Fine Arts at the Middlesex University. So his current show will be the last one for some time.

On what he does for fun, he says, “I love playing football. I am also interested in filmmaking. I would like to make movies that make people think. I have also had people suggest that if the art thing doesn’t work out, I should try my hand at stand-up comedy.”