Magunta Dayakar

Who Fails As An Artist ...? ...One who loves his paintings Magunta Dayakar

This is my seventh book. This is my master piece like Behrman's painted last leaf on the wall in the story of 'The Last Leaf.'In my childhood, I read American writer O. Henry's short story ' The Last Leaf '. In that story a young woman Johnsy is seriously ill with pneumonia. She believes that when the ivy vine on the wall outside her window loses all its leaves, she will also die. Everyday a leaf drops from the vine. Behrman, an old artist, who lives in the basement of the same apartment, always used to say that one day he will paint his master piece, came to know Johnsy's belief about the last leaf of the ivy vine. He paints a leaf in that rainy night on the wall with perfect realism as if it is a real leaf where ivy vine lies. The next morning when Johnsy saw that last leaf did not fall from the ivy wine, she starts to recover from her illness but Behrman, who caught pneumonia while painting the leaf, dies. But he painted his master piece which saved a life. This story inspired me a lot. As an artist and writer, I always dreamt of painting a master piece like Behrman's painted leaf. This book is my Painted leaf. After creating a master piece like this at the fag end of my life, there is nothing left to excite me to write any more. All my previous books dealt with technical aspects of color, composition, imagination and portrait painting. But this book is different, rather than concentrating on technical aspects of painting like my other books, this book focuses on understanding painting. This is about what one should do to become a true artist. I hope this short book will inspire you to get in depth insight in both art and life.