Shahsikant Vaman Dhotre is an Indian Contemporary painter born at Shirapur village, April 1st, 1982, district of Solapur, Maharashtra, India. He is the artist who uses color pencils and paper for his awe-inspiring drawing. Shashikant Dhotre’s artwork is a combination of intricacy and starkness. Every single viewer unanimously has the same awe and unabashed appreciation in the eyes. His painting has that rare quality of looking alive and give the impression of human existence is neither rural nor urban but rooted in purity and beauty. Time stands frozen in his work.

Early life and education:

Shashikant Dhotre was born in a Shirapur (SO) village, Taluka Mohol, district Sholapur of Maharashtra State. Born to a mason’s family, Shashikant is eldest of the four sons and two daughters of his parents. The financial condition was not so rosy at home and he was not so enthusiastic about pursuing an academic career. Mr. Dhotre was a good observer and his mind was traveling with piercing lines that were carried throughout the stone. The sound of chisels and the line that was rising by every stroke and nicety of his father’s hand during carving the stone, these all bestowed a great influence in his mind to pursue his passion in drawing. Another strong content of his practice is his mother. She is good at sewing. Shashikant seems her mother too brave at every abominable moment of her life. He experienced these sides of arts; craftsmanship and struggle with life very closely and fortunately, it fortified him to stand against it as a master, not as a thrall. Every person has his or her own story of struggle but it is most important to see that what he or she picks up from it.

At starting of his passion in drawing he started drawings in graphite on paper. Later he was encouraged to carry this practice in larger skill at that time, he was a worker at the sand picker station But he found himself drawing on whatever surface he could. By the time he reached high school, he decides to drop out and joins his father as a helper in quarries. As the years went by, his enthusiasm grew more as he was toiling at quarries and rivers. It was then someone told that he could study art formally. With the help of good Samaritans he studied his basic education and in 2003, he joined the prestigious J.J School of Arts Mumbai. But he had to drop the college once again within three months, to extend helping hand to his mother and went back to the village. Shahsikant then decided to take matters into his own hands. He noticed that with a simple tool such as a lead pen, he could create startling art creations. He immediately got many sponsors.

In his first attempt he received the Governor’s award from Bombay art society, since then the eyes of visual art came up on his unique style. In his earlier works he drew female figures, which comes from black background. Some of his figures were looking at captive birds, fish; Sitting unblinkingly and somewhere she found very enthusiastic and very happy and enthusiastic. The endless beauty and every part of his work are like a floating device like a buoy that indicates the scenic beauty in his works. Selection of different material and treatment maintains uniqueness in his work. But his command on color pencil is really amazed and astounding. Being a master in his pencil work he still discovering something that always been scratching somewhere in his mind to expressing of his real anguish.

The works of Shashikant Dhotre stand tall in the crowd of contemporary art production because they do not discard history, on the contrary, they substantiate their role in making history by being a part of the continuity of a tradition, which automatically becomes an interface to test the veracity of various meaning created in and around them.