Even as he celebrates 'beautiful pain', artist, Julius Macwan exudes an infectious and comforting joie de vivre

Young, urban, artistic and not cynical? That's something uncommon, given the penchant for contemporary artists living in a corporatised world to succumb to existential dilemma. Not Julius Macwan. He is an artist you can party with. He is neither angst-driven nor sullen. His joie de vivre is infectious, his warmth comforting.

His knack for making strangers effortlessly speak from their heart rivals his ability to pick up hidden nuances of those very people, and then depict them with great poignancy on canvas. "I work with energy as a force. It's a life force that runs through each of my paintings. I see the painting in my head, first, complete. And I feel its energy, its aura, its soul. Then I conceive it, and give birth to it." Likening his creative process to childbirth is linked closely to his great belief in the energising feminine principle or what he sees as the "female raised to religion".

The austerity of his work is offset by a dash of boyish humour. When asked about his pet influences, he quickly rattles off: "India for my life, UG Krishnamurti to destroy my mind, and Michelangelo, William Blake, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud to simply sit with!"

His exhibition titled The Hermit, held in Mumbai earlier this year, was extremely well received. His entire collection was based on what he calls "beautiful pain". Glistening and luminous, his blasé allusions to fame and 'celebrity hood', make his works sub-culturally significant in a country desperately seeking instant validation, but struggling to receive it.

But he doesn't struggle with his personal philosophy. "Too fast to live. Too young to die" he affirms with a wry smirk.

Text by Bandana Tewari