MINIATURE MARVELS

It takes talent, artistic fervour, endless patience and labour to master the art of miniature paintings, all of which Gopal Prasad Sharma epitomises. Meet the national award winning artist, whose feat of drawing a portrait on a single grain of mustard seed puts him in a league of his own.

- Joseph Rozario

Rajasthan is dotted with forts, palaces, havelis and temples that stand out for their ornate facades and rich interiors replete with colourful frescoes and murals, thanks to a gifted community of masons and artists who thrived under royal patronage during the era of rajas and maharajas. Gopal Prasad Sharma traces his ancestry to one such family of court artists and masons from Bijolia, which was a part of the former state of Mewar. This artistic lineage inculcated a love for paintings in him, which was furthered by his father Kanhaiya Lal Sharma teaching him the basic principles of art. But unlike his father, who was versed in the family tradition of wall art, Gopal Prasad Sharma found his calling in miniature paintings instead.

Early years

Gopal Prasad Sharma was born in Bijolia, in 1964. Sometime around 1980, the pursuit of a career and the need to earn money took him to Jaipur, where he still lives with his daughter, son and daughterin-law, his wife Shashi Bala Sharma having passed away a few years ago. During his early days in Jaipur, Sharma recalls, he would take up assignments for making copies of pictures from books and calendars, copies of antique paintings and the like, for small business houses and shopkeepers. Often he would get orders for making pictures on ivory (a banned item now), which would require him to make very small paintings. This honed his skills for depicting minute details, and after working in the field for 7-8 years, he switched to miniature paintings.

Changing direction