PUNE: Sandeep Sinha, an abstract painter from Pune, helped India enter the Guinness Book of World Records by painting the ‘World’s largest professional oil painting by a single artist’.
Sinha’s painting titled ‘HiMakhan’ painted on an area of 48.78 sqm (29.8 m in length and 1.64 m in breadth) is a single scene painting of the Himalayas. It broke the Guinness World Record previously held by the United States of America for four years, which had covered an area of 22.46 sqm.
‘HiMakhan’ means strong-minded like the Himalayas and soft-hearted like butter, according to Sinha. It took him two and a half months to complete this painting.
“I started working on the painting on August 8, 2018, and completed it on October 10, 2018. The challenge and the toughest part was that because it’s an oil painting, it takes really long to dry. A small patch takes almost a week to dry. And the large scale and size of the painting made it even more difficult,” said Sinha, a techie working with Tech-Mahindra.
This painting was first displayed at his solo exhibition titled ‘Avahan - Awakening the Goodness Within’ in October last year at the Raja Ravi Varma Art Gallery in Shivajinagar, where it is still housed.
A self-taught abstract painter, Sinha dedicated this painting to victims of acid attacks, who stand tall in the face of danger and continue to fight against the discrimination they face from the society.
Sinha feels that the Himalayas are the best way to represent and symbolise their strength and courage. Coming from an Army background, Sinha’s inspiration comes from his father and his family, and a desire to showcase his patriotism through artwork.
In his future projects, Sinha wants to depict social themes like child abuse.
