Art is a form of Meditation, it heals.
Article I By Sheetal Durve
I dream of colors and vivid images come to my mind. It’s as if my subconscious mind is trying to paint a picture to tell a story.
Through my brushes and canvas, I try to tell my stories to the world. The stories change, but the medium of storytelling is always the same.
Colours let me express myself best. Be it canvas, walls, paper or any surface I get to use, I use vibrant colors to draw you into my stories. Hopefully, my stories will move you, entertain you, make you think. “My art is an imprint of my soul-stirring emotions.”
Sheetal Durve’s art is inspired by nature and life around her. Simplicity and versatility blend together on her canvas. She paints with minimal usage of lines and strokes on varied themes with watercolours, oil, acrylic and mixed media.
Aloof yet Attached: An oil on handmade paper. Again an abstract showing the mind of a human physically present with others yet aloof and detached. The circles symbolize humans and the lines are the connections between them.
Living in the vibrant middle eastern city of Dubai, in an ever-evolving world has added newer perspectives to her artwork. Real life situations, people, travel and Mother Earth are all her muses today. Through workshops and classes, she shares her passion for art with young children in schools and in online sessions. Her creative legacy lives on endlessly with her paintings.
Since childhood I have loved to draw and paint, and knew at a very early age that this is what I want to do. But at the same time I had a very deep sense, almost like an urge to share whatever I learnt and knew with others. I was in the 7th grade, when I joined the drive "Saksharta mission" to educate the poor kids who did not have access to schools. Along with my mom we taught the children in the basement of our home. In the second year of Art college My friend and I would travel by bus for an hour to a village called Saswad to teach children Art in a goverment school.
Photo Credit - Sheetal Durve - Art Studio
Art Therapy Workshops
Over the years my passion for art grew and the urge to share this skill with others grew even stronger. I believe that art is the best healing tool to transmute pain into empowerment. So at this point I am not just expressing my thoughts and emotion through my paintings but helping others to express theirs too. After going into depths of how art can heal, it made this process even more exciting and gratifying. Doing several workshops with disabled, mentally challenged, autistic or underprivileged children brings me utmost satisfaction.
Art is the language of the soul. When you are taking an internal impulse or a personal vision and through self awareness putting it onto an external form like art, it helps to find new depths to your thinking. This is what I have been trying to do with different age groups, Grief support and Alzheimer's patients too. Recently I mentored an exhibition with the theme "Grief" where A grief support group and Alzheimer's patients expressed their emotions via Art. So with every session we did, the inner most feelings surfaced and the healing process began gradually step by step. The exhibition was a huge success both in terms of paintings sold and happiness and confidence to the participants.
I do feel that we all our connected together in this universe and it is our responsibility to give back in whatever way we can. With art as my tool in whatever way I can make a difference to this place I always try. With the australian forest fires, a lot of koalas died and so many injured. I had an aution with my painting to help raise funds for the cause. There is a non profit organization called Birds of Sofia which raises funds for children born with rare diseases around the world. I have raised funds with my Art for this organization too. Art is a very powerful tool, and I am so proud to have deeply associated with it, using my skills to bring in a change in people's lives. " Quiet the mind and the soul will speak".
Some of her paintings
About: Sheetal hails from Pune in India and has always been expressing herself through her paintings. After graduating in Psychology, she went on to complete her masters in fine art from Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalay in Pune. For a short while she also dabbled her hands in advertising as a designer before returning to her first love – painting. Though watercolor continues to be her preferred medium, she occasionally chooses oil, Acrylic and mixed media. Sheetal has also been conducting watercolour workshops in schools and nurseries in Dubai. A mother of two children, Sheetal currently resides in Dubai and capturing the sights of the vibrant city onto her canvas.
Artist - Sheetal Durve
Website: www.sheetaldurve.com Instagram: @artofsheetal