Kolkata :

He says he knows Rashtrapati Bhavan like the back of his hand, having spent 15 years there as curator. This time, painter Jogen Choudhury will spend 10 days there as President Pranab Mukherjee’s guest, ‘sketching, painting and working without a specific plan’.

Invited by the President under a new scheme “Artists in Residence”, the Rajya Sabha MP is the first of authors and artists who are set to follow him to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Choudhury has been put up at the sprawling guest house inside the Presidential address. And he could soon be making a portrait of the President, said the artist. “I have no definite plan but I do intend to create a portrait of the President, provided we can fit enough sittings into his busy schedule,” said Choudhury, who also attended a Parliament session on Tuesday.

But first he needs to get acclimatized to the environment, he said. “You tend to feel a little lost in this huge place although Rashtrapati Bhavan is familiar territory since I spent a considerable amount of time here between 1972 and 1987 as curator.”

He will search for additions and alterations that have come about in the last 25 years. And he could start off with a set of sketches. “It seems likely that I will be doing a few sketches initially. It’s an honour to be the President’s guest and I hope to use the opportunity to come up with something different,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / August 06th, 2014