Modern paintings upset this painter

gadag: a broken idol of saraswati in a temple inspired him to do a stunning portrait of goddess saraswati, which, till date, is one of his prized possessions. after a creative voyage of four decades, the painter in him is disillusioned. disillusioned with today's dumbing down of arts. abdul aziz abdul karim shirahatti, who celebrates nature in watercolour, is upset that modern-day paintings are explained in detail in the name of modern art.``they (paintings) should be self-explanatory.'' shirahatti had formal schooling in uttara kannada district, a land of verdant forests which made him draw portraits of greenery. later he studied in khayyam school of art, belgaum, and vijaya art institute, gadag. he learnt art under the tutelage of state-level artistes like m.a. chetti, c.n. patil, v.t. kale, n.s. shilpi and savant, a famous scholar of bombay's j.j. school of art. the karnataka government awarded shirahatti the dasara exhibition prize in 1963. shirahatti, who has done certificate course in diploma in art master, is working as a primary schoolteacher in betgeri. some of his works are: gagan yamini, priya sangam, punar milan, youvana anuragabhandhan; temple of aadikeshava (kaginele), doddabasappa (dambal), virupaksha (hampi), dargah of rehmanshavali (naregal); portraits of mahatma gandhi, jawaharlal nehru, lal bahadur shastri, abraham lincoln, lenin and rabindranath tagore.