Delve into the world of mythology

BANGALORE: Painting came as a hobby at the age of five to the 58-year-old expert in divine mythological art, Yashwanth Hibare. Basically a native of Bidar district settled in Bangalore for forty years, the artiste is illiterate and did not find any way to survive other than showcasing his talent. His mother Yamuna bhai and father Thippaji Rao, a tailor, were his major source of inspiration, when there was no one around in the deserted village to encourage him.In the year 1962, Hibare met S V Patel, a theatre artiste who gave him a chance to paint the divine art on the backdrop of the stage. “I used to draw small pictures of God but Patel made me look at art in a holistic approach, painting on a 25 feet screen, ” said Hibare who considers him as his first guru. When asked why his paintings were only mythological and not based on any other theme, Hibare said that at the age of five he knew that the villagers would only buy the portraits of God with respect and wouldn’t care much about other subjects. Famous divine painter and calendar artiste, S M Pandit is his role model. “In the year 1962, I peddled 83 km from Bidar to Gulbarga to meet him, but couldn’t, as he had left to Bombay the day before, ” he recalled. Hibare has a good affinity for the Rambhapuri peeta of Bhadravathi, Karnataka. “Meeting Gangadhara Jagadguru is a turning point in my life. He inspired and encouraged me a lot,” he further added. Jagadguru Veer Gangadhar Shivachar, Veer Someshwar and Chandrasekhar shivachar have conferred Hibare with Chitrakala Ratna in 1962, Chitrakala Nipuna, Chitrakala Vachaspathi and Vrutthi Chaitanya in 2010.Comparing Ravivarma with S M Pandit, Hibare confessed that he had never heard of Ravivarma in Bidar as much as in Mysore and Bangalore. “Ravi Varma has done a great job with imagination. There is no doubt about it, but S M Pandit is the best. He’s more than God to me,” the artiste added. Apart from painting, the Kannada Rajya Prashasthi 2010 awardee is interested in swimming, kabbadi and kusti. In fact, he has won several cash awards till the age of thrity six.Hibare, whose paintings were sold for Rs 80,000 at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath in 2010, is sad that none of his family members were interested in art as much as he is.