Abstract

“I recently came across an interesting story of a senior couple who by example went on to prove that retirement years are the best time to be active. ‘Don't brood after retirement and keep your mind and body occupied’ is what they seemed to signify. Read, paint, walk, write, blog. And if you can convert your efforts into cash, do so by evey means and enjoy what you richly deserve. Gold begets gold is what this couple from Meerut has proved in their golden years.”

Ram Kishen, 81, and Kumudh Goyal, 73, are made for each other. It’s the story of love that has withstood time. Even after so many years of marriage they enjoy working together on various things, including their passion for painting. When most of the ilk of their age is taking it easy, this Haryana couple is busy working ceaselessly to create new paintings for the love of art. Though not for financial benefits, sheer love for paintings and an opportunity to be together keeps them excited.

Painting seems to be in their blood and they established an art school 58 years ago, that later grew into a high school, though art remained one of the subjects taught. The Goyals are adept in various art forms like charcoal sketching, oil on canvas, water painting and batik, and a visit to Brindavan changed the course of their lives forever. Their focus shifted to creating new painting techniques. Krsna became their focus and they evolved a special and unique form of painting oil on canvas with gold and embellishments of precious stones. The art was time consuming and painstaking, but since then there has been no looking back. One such painting takes three to four weeks to be completed. But working in tandem they enjoy every moment of their togetherness and are happy to produce attractive and decorative paintings of gods…shining in gold.

The ‘swarna kriti’ that the Goyals have developed, is a seven step (saptapadi) process. It comprises:

• Creating the canvas.
• Fixing the cloth over it.
• Sketching the figures to be painted -- for them it is mostly Krsna.
• Embossing these figures.
• Applying gold on to the painting evenly over the canvas.
• Allowing the liquefied gold to dry and then do the actual painting.
• Completing the process by fixing the semiprecious imported stones.

Voila! The painting is ready and worth its weight in gold!

The Goyals consider it as their service to the Lord who has given them whatever they wanted. What more "Kainkarya" can the gods ask for?" The Goyals explained the intricacies of the paintings and how it all started years back. They also provide a certificate on the purity of the gold to whoever buys their painting.

The couple organised an exhibition of oil on canvas paintings encrusted with 24 carat gold and jewels, at Mumbai recently and displayed 173 of their work titled 'Om Namoh'. Ram Kishen and Kumudh Goyal successfully exhibited their art, thanks to some smart commercial sense of their daughter who encouraged them to let the hard work of their golden years reap rewards too. The paintings fetch the Goyals Rs 2 to 3 lakhs per canvas.

I saw some of the most popular gods donning the canvas—Balaji, Krsna, Ganesh and Sai Baba were all there in the exhibition! But the main exhibit 'Maakhan Chor' dominated the show.