How would you like your wedding day to be remembered? For most of us, it would mean a huge celebration in the company of our loved ones; us being impeccably dressed along with bridesmaids, best men and parents, a sumptuous buffet laid out along with some good music and plenty of dancing and, well, of course plenty of pictures to make memories out of one of the best days of our lives.
More often than not, guests are given a memento as a remembrance of the significant day and, well, surely, you have plenty of these mementos lying in your showcase at home. In most cases, these mementos are lost in the midst of your own memories adorning the same showcase. How, then, can you remember someone else’s wedding day?
Enter, Denzil Clement, a caricature artist. For the last four years now, he’s been creating memories eternal at weddings and all kinds of parties with his remarkable caricatures of guests. What’s really special is the fact that he’s able to paint you on paper in a matter of minutes! Seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? It is, until you see for yourself!
Although Denzil has had the hand of an artist since his schooldays – he reminisces and even laughs at how his friends used to challenge him back in his school-days to draw the ‘undrawable’ Mid-day mates and the admonishing he used to receive from his parents – he started out as a tattoo artist while in college; given the fad in the 2000s for tattoos and with shows like Miami Ink trending back then in the day, it seemed like a rewarding part-time job.
It took him many years and a trip around the globe to realise that painting smiles on peoples’ faces was his calling. Starting off as a chef at a five-star and later moving on to the cruise-liner, Denzil could never stop sketching in his free time. He would make subjects of whatever was within his vision; so much so a guest on the cruise-liner once mistook him for a professional and bought his painting! This led him to take up painting even more seriously and whenever the cruise would dock at a port, he would attract plenty of attention for his paintings, not to mention even buyers for his pieces of aesthetic art.
Sitting in his studio where excited clients drop by to have their caricatures done, Denzil enjoys the look his subjects have on their faces on seeing the comic version of themselves, that too in colour – all done in less than a few minutes. “For me, the most important thing is to see the smile on people’s faces when they see their caricatures. No one knows what’s going on in another’s life and even if for a moment I can make someone smile, I feel satisfied,” says Denzil, who is dyslexic and faced much resistance when he eventually decided to make art his living. A portrait taking the place right at the top in his studio, of a man hanging on to HOPE while others try to pull him down, depicts just that.
Eventually, Denzil did call it quits from his job on the cruise-line as a chef and came back home to take up what he more than excelled at: sketching and painting caricatures. For the last four years now, Denzil has mastered the art of sketching caricatures: cartoon versions of real people. But it was only recently that Denzil opened his own studio. That too, because his house resembled one, filled with the clutter of his artwork, art material, t-shirts, mugs and the like. While he isn’t busy drawing caricatures or designing witty, imaginative wedding invites, which take up most of his time, Denzil busies himself in his tattoo studio creating tattoos, which is another art he has mastered over the years since his college days. Although, he sounds a word of caution to tattoo lovers, “Most of the equipment available in the market is of cheap quality which tend to cause cancers and skin infections. While first-timers like to ignore the plain truth, for me, my client is my priority; hence, I use quality instruments to create a tattoo.”
Having attended more than 400 events around the country as a caricature artist, Denzil has created a flutter in the art industry with his distinctive ability of conjuring an entire portrait of a person in a matter of just three to six minutes! He’s even working on approaching the Limca Book of Records for setting the record for painting the fastest caricatures. So impressive is he at his work that he’s become an instant attraction at weddings around the city, where guests line up to have their caricatures drawn. “Sometimes, the photographers clicking instant photos at weddings take longer to develop their images than the time taken by me to paint the same faces. It’s really joyful to see the smiles on the faces of people I draw,” exclaims Denzil. Well, who needs a photo booth then?
While you might remember your wedding day for its smorgasbord, music and regalia, your guests will only have to look at their own artistically and magically drawn caricatures to remember your memorable day that made theirs!
Having Denzil paint his signature three-to-six-minute-colour caricatures of your guests and give them a lifetime memory costs ₹40,000 for a three-hour event.
You can even buy his caricatures on his website: www.denzilart.com or call 09920647661
