Page 18 - C.D. Mistry || Master of Fantasy || The Arts Trust

proportion. For Mistry, this honesty and spontaneity

were deeply inspiring. He admired how these murals
carried so much life and feeling despite their simplicity.

He sought to bring the same spirit into his own art.
In the early years of working in this style, he realised

that this technique demanded steady, continuous effort
within a set time to get the texture just right. Before

this, he had experimented with decorative folk styles,
symbolic art, and even watercolour landscapes. But it

was in this particular style that he found true creative
satisfaction. Mistry kept taking it further, always

looking for new ways to push its boundaries. Paintings
like Vastraharan, Shakti and Agnipariksha are strong

examples of how he made the style his own. The artist
always believed that this form held great potential for

future growth and could lead to even more creative
16 expression, which became true for him. 17

Before fully turning to folk art, Mistry spent years

exploring landscapes through painting. He was always
in search of an unparalleled visual language, and his

early landscapes were part of that journey. Painted
mostly in watercolours, these works were full of life and

light—he never used white paint to show brightness, but
instead allowed the natural whiteness of the paper to

shine through. Each fresh and delicate landscape was
painted en plein air, in a single sitting, helping preserve

the natural vibrancy of the colours. Mistry believed that
a good landscape was not just about showing a place,

but about capturing its atmosphere and spirit. He felt
his work should reflect the mood, light and rhythm of

the scene—like the misty hills of Saputara, the banana