The two men, one a farmer from Wisconsin and the other a poultry grower from Michigan, encouraged Chandras to come to the United States for his education. More important, the two promised that if he could get accepted into an American college, they would help with airline tickets and support. It took Chandras five years, but in 1970 at the age of 19, he earned a scholarship to Eureka College in Eureka, Ill., the alma mater of the late Ronald Reagan. There, he earned a bachelor's degree in business, having already earned one in India. He then moved to New Mexico, where he earned an MBA in marketing at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Earning his MBA was liberating to Chandras' spirit. "I realized that this is the only country where you can do anything you want to do and no one says,`Why are you doing that?' " he says. "I took the diploma back to my father, and I gave it to him. I've had a passion for art since my childhood, and I knew I could go back and study art. He was okay with that as [with the marketing degree], I could fall back on something." Back in Albuquerque, Chandras continued working at Sagrada Art and taking art classes there as well as at UNM.
Prakash Chandras' journey to professional artist got its start in Pune, India, with help from two Peace Corps volunteers
DeAnza art instructor dedicates each day to new painting
By Mary Gottschalk
Willow Glen Resident
Posted: 07/08/2009 03:26:02 PM PDT
Updated: 07/08/2009 03:26:03 PM PDT
Every morning Prakash Chandras sits down in the studio of his home, takes out his acrylics and paints a 5-by-6-inch piece of art.
He then scans the finished piece and posts it on his www.californiadai lyart.com website.
The subjects are varied, ranging from sea lions on the beach to a building on Treasure Island. The Golden Gate Bridge is a recurring subject, as are flowers, seascapes and fauna such as deer, ducks and dragonflies. The originals are for sale, but their images remain permanently on the site.
Exactly what he is going to paint is something the DeAnza College art instructor doesn't think about until he's in front of his easel.
"It's a surprise to myself," he says.
"Two things I really like about this project are one, it's a surprise. I don't even know what I'm going to paint.
"The other is the self-discipline. It is the hardest thing as there is no paycheck at the end of the painting." How long it will take is another unknown factor.
"Usually it's about two to three hours," Chandras says. "Depending on the complexity, I have spent almost all day on one of the cards. I painted a beach scene from Capitola with a whole bunch of figures and it took me almost a whole day." Chandras started his daily painting in October 2006.
"I was watching Diane Sawyer interview David Allan Evans, the poet laureate, and he was telling his process of writing poems," he recalls.
"Every day on his way to his writing studio in back of his house, he finds a piece of grass or a pebble, and he writes a poem about it for that day.
"I thought, ;What if I painted a pebble or a piece of grass every day?' Then I decided to do it about California.
"I've been here since 1980 and I love the weather. So I decided to paint something about California places where I've been.
"Nothing is out of the air. All the pictures have some experience. I have seen the flower or I have been to the place. I sketch or take photographs, and I paint from those at home.
"It really is a way to self-discipline myself." Amazingly, Chandras says he does not tire of facing a new painting every single day.
"I never skip," he says. "There have been times when I was not able to paint. One day my computer broke and one time I was gone to India. I was able to paint, but I was not able to post. There are some gaps in the archives, but not too many." He is particularly pleased that "there are no gaps this year from January 1." Chandras is planning a trip to his native India in August and says, "Before I go there, I will paint the 30 cards. I'll do two cards a day so I'll have enough.
"I don't like to see gaps. I tell people I paint and post every day. If they go to see it, I want them to see it every day." Painting is both Chandras' passion and his profession. He has been a part-time instructor of art at DeAnza College since 1990. He has also taught art classes at Foothill College, San Jose City College, West Valley College and Monterey Peninsula Community College.
Once Chandras has finished his daily art piece, he turns to oils and his own particular style of painting he calls "linearism.
"When the painting is finished, 90 to 95 percent of the surface is covered with parallel lines." Chandras says his unique style started with a dream he had about Georgia O'Keeffe while he was living in New Mexico.
"I dreamed I went and visited her in her studio and she was showing me her work. The latest painting she had on her easel and was still working on it was all parallel lines of mountains and New Mexico landscapes," he says.
"When I woke up the next morning, I realized she had never painted parallel lines. It was my dream and my image.
"I painted it the next morning, and since then, I've painted New York, Chicago, Honolulu, Seattle, San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and San Jose. The linear style fits well with cityscapes." Chandras' linearism pieces are large canvases of six to eight feet. He's shown them individually in some exhibitions and hopes to have a show in the future that would present them together.
Chandras' journey to professional artist got its start in Pune, India, with help from two Peace Corps volunteers.
The two men, one a farmer from Wisconsin and the other a poultry grower from Michigan, encouraged Chandras to come to the United States for his education. More important, the two promised that if he could get accepted into an American college, they would help with airline tickets and support.
It took Chandras five years, but in 1970 at the age of 19, he earned a scholarship to Eureka College in Eureka, Ill., the alma mater of the late Ronald Reagan.
There, he earned a bachelor's degree in business, having already earned one in India. He then moved to New Mexico, where he earned an MBA in marketing at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Earning his MBA was liberating to Chandras' spirit.
"I realized that this is the only country where you can do anything you want to do and no one says,`Why are you doing that?' " he says.
"I took the diploma back to my father, and I gave it to him. I've had a passion for art since my childhood, and I knew I could go back and study art. He was okay with that as [with the marketing degree], I could fall back on something." Back in Albuquerque, Chandras continued working at Sagrada Art and taking art classes there as well as at UNM.
It was also in Albuquerque that he met his future wife, Karen.
The two married in 1980, in a Hindu ceremony in India and a Christian one in Indiana. They have two daughters, Jessica, 21, who attends the University of Washington in Seattle, and Emily, 17, a senior at Leigh High School.
Chandras and his wife later moved to San Jose, and in 1983, he earned a master's degree in fine arts in painting at San Jose State University.
Looking toward the future, Chandras says he would like to have a show of his linearism pieces. He's had solo and group shows throughout the Bay Area as well as in India.
He also plans to continue with his daily paintings and hopes the public will visit his website to enjoy them.
For additional information on Prakash Chandras visit www.chan drasarts.com or www.californiadail yart.com.
