Featured Artist Swapnil Nevgi

Artist Swapnil Nevgi presents a portfolio of detailed and romantic paintings of Australian wildlife. See more art by visiting his website.

 

 

My art journey began back when I was three years old in the coastal town of Goa, India. My mum saw me scribble perfect circles on paper. She had an intuition that I could become an artist someday. My parents encouraged me to create art, and I won many awards at National and State level. My art was appreciated. I kept getting more and more passionate about it.

 

 

However, as I grew up, working towards a well-paying career became paramount. Art took a back seat and eventually became history. After graduating with a degree in advertising in 2001, I moved to Australia where I completed my post-graduate work in communication design and IT.

 

 

I fell in love with Australia and decided to call it my home. As the years passed, my work life took over. It seemed that I was never able to find time to make art. This was very frustrating, as my need to create was very strong.

 

 

One Christmas, twenty years after graduating, I treated myself to some art materials and did a painting purely for fun. It made me so happy that I could not resist painting another one and then another. It did not take me long to realise that the happiness I found creating art mattered more to me than the financial security I had with my career.

 

 

I continued to work full-time, but began successfully selling my art at local weekend markets. Three years later, I took a leap of faith. With the encouragement of my incredibly supportive wife, I embraced my love for art full-time.

 

 

I am inspired by nature and wildlife and they have become my subjects of choice. Nature has many stories to tell. The art I create is all about bringing those stories to canvas. As my preferred style is realism, recreating the subject accurately is especially important.

 

 

I spend a lot of time in nature observing, collecting experiences, and taking photos that I use as reference for my creations. When painting, I use at least five photos as well as my imagination. I also do extensive online research about the animal or bird that I am planning to paint before I compose my art.

 

 

I love working on intricate details. My paintings are usually quite large, and I easily spend well over one hundred hours working on each one. I only stop working on a painting when I am fully satisfied with it.

 

 

Every painting is a learning process for me. I believe you can never completely master art; there is always room for improvement. I prefer oils, but also work with acrylic and watercolours.

 

 

Since the start of my art journey, I have been a finalist in many art competitions. I’ve undertaken commissions and am proud to be included in local and international private collections. I would like to see my art making its way all around the world, spreading the happiness that I experience, to many more households.

 

Artist Swapnil Nevgi invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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