The deft oil strokes of Claude Monet’s impressionist naturescapes had him hooked into painting and the picturesque locales of Naggar, where Roerich painted, brought out the dreamy artist in him but it was in the lucidity of Pt Tirath Ram’s flowy water colours closer home, that he found eventual comfort.

Noted artist and painter Yogeshwar Hans had to search, hunt and roam the streets to find his calling in art, but his life’s motto now is to give his students what he didn’t get early on — clarity and purpose.

An Associate Professor at the Kanya Maha Vidyalaya in Jalandhar, Yogeshwar is haunted by the same dilemma which haunts many other art colleagues — social media is snatching students away from art disciplines. However, in the dying light of the era of artistic idealism, he’s still doing his bit to keep the flame alive.

His postgraduate class has 10 students and until the admissions get over, he’ll have 12 to 15 students. “That’s a decent class in a time when art discipline students are thinning everywhere”.

He picked up Monet in an art book while at college when Fine Arts wasn’t even a subject at DAV College, Hoshiarpur. But he had decided painting was his calling.

Fine Arts was introduced at DAV College, Hoshiarpur, in 2003, which he promptly opted for. Then, he pursued his postgraduation in Fine Arts from the Government College, Hoshiarpur.

Hans said, “We had to work things out. We didn’t had field visits or large budgets. So, my primary aim is to make sure my students get the opportunities which I didn’t had. Ensuring their exposure at camps, echibitions and field trips, which we keep doing is one of my priorities. We are doing decently so far.”

He said, “Students respond very positively, especially when open to exposure and opportunities. I am thankful to my college for allowing us the budget for costly paint materials and field trips which makes the journey worth it.”

While he was pressurised to take up English during his postgraduation, he chose his love for painting over his interest for literature. Having held solo and group shows in Amritsar as well as his favourite field locale of Himachal, where he has also exhibited at the Roerich Art Gallery, he plans on infusing the same passion into his students.

The galssy lucidity of water colours still remains his favourite medium.

“Monet left me wonderstruck. That’s when I discovered the joy of painting. And since then, I’ve seen a lot of art but the style of paintings of the Pt Tirath Ram School at Hoshiarpur are my favourite. I’ve developed my own style and my comfort zone lies in water colours. Pt Tirath Ram was the first pioneer of water colours in Punjab. Though many are attempting water colours in opaque, acrylic style fashion also today. But then if you like opaque, you might as well stick to acrylics. The transparency and flowy dreaminess of water colours is what sets them apart.”