On Thursday Night, April 6th, Spoke Art in San Francisco opened a new solo exhibition by Nimit Malavia entitled Finding Together Again. The past couple of weeks had been nothing but work, so being able to see new drawings by a outstanding artist such as Nimit, was good news indeed. For this reception, Spoke Art gave away free mini-prints to the first 100 attendees. There was a good amount of people there for reception; each person scored a free print without having to fight for them. Nimit showed up shortly after opening, and I was able to ask him a few questions about his process and other projects.
I have been a fan of Nimit’s work for quite a while now, and had talked to him a few times before but mainly about print releases and preview pics for shows. I took this opportunity to get a look into his working process, and how he creates these breath-taking images. I had always assumed that the line work in Nimit’s drawings were made using a micron or similar style of pen, but learned after the thumbnail and sketches are created, and then blown up for the final piece, every line you see is created with a tiny brush and ink. He said he just keeps drawing until his hand can’t move anymore; in the piece seen below Remus and Romulus, he put over 100 hours into it. For the painted pieces, Nimit will use watercolors to do light washes, and then finish up with acrylic washes, as seen with the two pieces that had gold-leaf embellishments. One of the smaller painted drawings was all acrylic washes, and the contrast was more intense, so you can see the difference in those that had a more mixed-media style to them.
