Artist Statement

I seek the intensity when taste, temperament and technique coincide at the time of creation. 

I begin a painting with a clear mind and allow my brush strokes to pull the images with spontaneous approach.

Who am I?

My name is Prabin Badhia, live in Emeryville where I have exhibited in the Emeryville Art Exhibition almost every year since 2000.

In my college I was just an average student. Even art was not my preferable subject. But an escape route from the family pressure.

After my BFA, I started teaching art in the High School in Delhi (India), which allowed me to finish my MA Degree in History of Art. I came to USA in 1993 after finishing my Bachelor in Fine Art 1982 and Master in History of art 1992.

To continue my practice, I faced many challenges like continuously adopting new culture. I started from Bolangir, Odisha with culturally packed society, and then reached the Delhi metropolis and engaged in a work and college study atmosphere. From there I ended up in New York to work as a graphic designer. Constantly I had to update and discard and never had anything strong enough to hold onto something forever professionally other than art.

I had financial challenges but I never sacrificed art for my sense of security. There were times when I had to live with very little money. But my regular practice of art gave me hope and I found regular graphic work to be able to practice art. But I always wanted to be a fulltime artist.

I’m married and have a grown-up daughter. My daily routine involves cooking, shoping, taking care of yard and fixing household stuff during this Pandemic. I do work as a freelance graphic designer which is also a part of my regular discipline.

Theme and process

Family needs are important. But after fulfilling my duty with the family, I found an extra urge and appetite for a broader range of expression.

‘Art’ is my reason to live. Figure painting is my exploration because the human form and its range of motion is an infinite subject. The movement of a human body is a universal experience. As I play between expression and objectivity, I set my paintings as nudes with no reference to their identity of place or time. I am capable of any subject but my true expression is figures.

Social Connections:

Social divisiveness always makes me restless. I always ask myself who I am and where I belong to? Do I need to do to be a part of something big, or can I stay where I am even if it’s a smaller and closed group? Why do we need to be in a category? Why all capable people judge people in terms of their birth?

I maintain my presence in social media with constant posts of my new works to engage my followers around the world.  My YouTube channel called ‘beimaanpainter’ has 10K subscribers. I also learn a lot by participating in art symposiums in past years in Tunisia, Turkey, France (Paris), Italy (Farindola) and India.

My studio, 4th Street Fine Art in Berkeley, California is set up well to paint, teach, exhibit and interact with the public. I have been in the active studio environment since 2006 and have many long-time followers who regularly visit to see my work. www.4thstreetfineart.com

My Goal:

I paint, not to create a masterpiece but enjoy in mastering and engaging in the process. I mainly focus in painting human figures, and you might ask why.

Humans are a universal form in all geographic settings

but with different feelings and expressions - I find variety of emotion in human forms. In figure painting, I find the fundamentals of life. A human behaves differently based on their surroundings and the nature of the society or tribe they belong to. The figure also has its own unique expression which is detached from any time frame and cultural boundary. I am most interested to work on this aspect of human nature. My practice may or may not directly benefit the needs. But it will certainly help enhance and uplift the aesthetic boundary in visual art. I am ready to dive in to a new depth to extract the essence for art with my years of constant practice and involvement.

Website

https://www.prabinbadhia.com

Twtitter

https://twitter.com/PrabinBadhia

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/prabinbadhia

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/c/beimaanpainter