Say no to prints.

Art in India has been seeing a rapid and interesting growth. Awareness in art has given a new lease of life to traditional art forms as much as has made people more concious about the value of art in their lives. There is a lot of talk of " Brand India" in the art circles. To the common man the concept of "Brand India" seems very distant and expensive and limited to the very rich. But ,is it really and how can the common man build the value of " Brand India".
One small step the common man can take is by saying " No to prints".
But why you may ask.?
For one we have thousands of qualified artists who are graduating out from Art colleges every year and they all need to be patronised. If we as customers choose to buy prints where do these artists sell. And everytime we buy from a local Indian artist he is encouraged to paint some more-simultaneously honing his existing skills and also learning a few new ones. And unless you buy most of these artists do not have the resources to paint on their own.And most of them have very humble expectations.In your own small way you have contributed to " Brand India"

When we buy locally we have full freedom as to the themes we want , the colours we need as well as the sizes which suit us. When we buy prints all that is pre decided. And finally buying locally, you get an artwork which is different from anyone else. And the spin off ,you have contributed to " Brand India"

Art is nothing but an expression of a community, and the art we select and display at some level should be expressing our uniqueness. And our local artists are best suited for this.The usage of colours ,the motifs selected and the language spoken through their art is all close to our heart. And after all if our country has to be noticedin the world art is but another platform. For the world to notice our artists we have to notice them first. The more we buy the more he creates and gets stronger to display at larger platforms and contributes to building " Brand India". But in turn if our money is spent on buying prints many a Indian artist is lost .

The first step that each of us has to take is to scout for the art/artists in our neighbourhood , encourage them by buying from them . This will help them create more and who knows your contribution in mere hundreds would launch the next big name in the world of art.