Although the tag line of my website mathoda.com is the “art and observations of Ranjit S. Mathoda”, I shall now confess that I have never felt that art and observation are very separate things.

When I was young I concluded that the best reason to admire Leonardo da Vinci was not his anticipation of the helicopter, his accuracy in depicting the organs of the body, or his vibrant and subtle paintings.  I admire da Vinci because he relentlessly focused on observing what is there and concluded from that what is possible.

To do so required him to question common knowledge and perhaps more challengingly, personal knowledge.  When I first tried to draw a can of soup, the result was barely a rectangle, and definitely not a cylinder.  The eye saw, the mind reinterpreted, and the hand faltered.  No such object actually is a perfect cylinder.  Capturing the shape precisely requires a constant elimination of assumption, and a direct connection with what is actually there.

From Leonardo I learned that creativity does not spring from an extra deft hand.  It is conjured by a special focus of the mind.  This was a pleasing thought for a young child with bad penmanship.

Creating a work of art is an attempt to capture a particular focus of the mind, at its best a vibrant and insightful focus, and share it.  To further that ambition and to broaden the scope of my inspiration, I am now offering a service where I will make custom oil paintings inspired by anyone who contacts me.  The details of this service, and images of the paintings I have made in the past, can be found at mathoda.com/art.

I look forward to hearing from you.