When the wind rustles the leaves, the trees seem to be whispering the secrets of the universe. The 'psithurist' wanders between the branches of trees, in the mountains and whispers the secrets within these tangibles of nature. Vishwanath Sabale is such a humble, silent observer, a psithurist who creates the living embodiments of nature and whispers the conversations that we seldom pause to hear. He paints nature, thinks of himself as a mere observer, we are after all nature ourselves.
Ecology, preservation, saving the earth are the talk of the twenty first century. We discuss a lot of global warming, changes in the ecosystem which are marks of human doing. We are, we believe, more and more aware of nature in our vanity, but we hardly pause to listen to what encompasses us all around. An artist, often silently, without much ado, marks the zeitgeist of the time. He realises he is nature himself and only by connecting physically to ourselves and nature around us can we realise it. Sabale's works make one realise nature like one's own experience. He does not wish to make a bold statement, he wishes to be homogenous with earthian elements and this is what makes him a psithurist, one who can be part of nature as nature itself. His paintings are large masses of boulders, with tree’s branching out, sometimes penetrating the rocky surface.
Sabale's journey to his beautiful explorations of nature began with landscapes. Landscapes are very close to his heart. His affection towards landscape that began in initial college years continues till date. He believes landscape to be an important subject that vastly helps in development in student life. He passionately painted landscapes over the years in and around Pune, where he did his undergraduate studies; markets, streets, houses, every aspect of the city took shape with deft strokes of brush. At the same time, he also travelled to historical sites around, like Junnar, Sinhagad, Naneghat to paint, as he learnt history it's contemporary visuals became part of his consciousness.
Landscapes or nature though can be said as his temperament, part of his subconscious, that was what he experienced since he could remember. Born and having spent his childhood amidst the magnanimous Sahyadri ranges, at the foothills of Bhimashankar near Pune, his companions were trees of all kinds. He specially remembers the 'Katesavar' which has become a lifelong inspiration. The delicate shift from landscapes to organic formations seems to have roots in his childhood experiences. School here was in proximity to home, life rural, raw close to and hugely impacted by environment. It was much of an ecological living as urbanisation had not yet infected their living. School and teachers were family. Education was informal, experiential; these ideas have remained with him till date as a teacher and administrator.
Watercolour is his medium, it feels to him as his second nature, his 'Prakriti'. It's transparency, amalgamation of layers on paper, the liveliness and flow all have vivacity that brings out life in works. 'An artist's medium should be close to your own nature', he says. Watercolour helps bring out the spontaneity and energy that is the driving force in nature. He has played out all methods of this medium, Wash, wet on wet, layers as techniques. He finds these textures like our skin, watercolour gives tactile quality to the surface, the most sensitive aspect of painting. He has worked in all mediums like oil, acrylic but found watercolours most akin to his endeavours. As also he realised the landscapes as his medium of expression.
The organic forms of trees, their effervescent nature of shedding leaves and duality of the constant and change fascinated him vastly. As a child it must have made a mark which continued in his landscapes too. He believes he has a special bond with the banyan tree, the tree is everywhere with him from his small picturesque village to the Pune University campus which he frequented for painting while in Pune. He was inspired especially by its form and flourish. In one of his works, we see the world as he does- with the bark of a tamarind tree taking forms of humans, especially the graceful form of a woman, he found as naturally very beautiful. Eventually landscapes were converted to paintings, natures capes. This was the beginning of a romantic idiom, an impressionist- expressionist genre, to a vast ceaseless creation of pleasant beautiful works. This culminated in his early 'Summer Series', where he began to react more thoughtfully to his surroundings, having insights to his nature trails. The stark contrast in nature, of flowers and fruits blooming in scorching summer heat of the Deccan plateau attracted him, he found this phenomenon close to an artist's life; a bad phase in many other aspects of life was the most creative phase in the artist's creation. These bright warm compositions reflect his conceptual awakening, his excellent hold over medium and technique and his incessant love towards nature, especially the trees. The memories from childhood form a unique visual metaphor in these paintings.
Even today he takes long drives in picturesque locations, specially while travelling to his hometown amidst mountains, simply a 'psithurist', wandering through the rocks, the remnants of ageing of earth, the marks made by rivulets and Waterfalls, the folds of rock formation. These are testimony to our evolution, narrate the story of our existence. These ponderings were the inspiration of his mountain series. He saw mountains as the heart of nature (which coincidentally also have taken the shape of the human heart in some of his works).
Every element in nature life, the process and source materialise as tangible in mountains. A rock can narrate the story of nature, especially as rock stores life in fossils. Painting mountains in the moon and sun, in various forms, as fossils became a passion. He was trying to listen to what they had to say, feel the life the rocks had lived. Rocks, the hardest material, he came to observe, were also one of the most sensitive, tender and tolerant forms in nature. Like the pebbles in river beds which smoothened with constant contact with flowing water. They did not change their inherent substance but yet reacted lovingly to the caressing of river waters. These became his muse and have been the core of his art since. Like these pebbles who are witness and part of change, he too maintains a quiet demeanour as a creator; he doesn't want to tell anything huge, ideal. He wants to create beautiful works. Sabale's philosophy of life is quite idealistic, that of moving forward, keeping off negativity. He believes in moderation, of not doing things which cannot be controlled. Like the pebbles in the river, he remains constant in good and bad circumstances, softening and reacting to time but yet having an untethering character. He is truly the whisper in the vastness of our being, but the one that tells a true tale, giving voice to all that's unsaid.
- Snehal Tambulwadikar - Khedkar (Art Historian, Artist, Curator)