Community Artist 2004

Chirag Thumbar

In the fall of 2004, Bernheim hosted one of its first international staff exchange programs. Our guest was Chirag Thumbar, from Ahmedabad, in India. He works with the Centre for Environmental Education (CEE).

CEE develops programs and produces art and illustrations used in exhibits, publications and educational materials for the national parks, museums, and national zoo of India is one of the few places in where you can find wild nature and people living together. One of the reasons why people and nature coexist as well as they do in is because of the respect and spiritual connection with life that so many Indians possess. This human connection with the spirit of nature is something Bernheim seeks to create. Our mission is to connect people with nature. Since we do this through science as well as through art and the spirit of nature, the collaboration with India, Chirag and CEE is very appropriate.

We were anxious to see his response to Bernheim. He had spent his life in India’s wild places producing detailed illustrations of Indian lions and other cats, exotic birds and other wildlife. Chirag’s first wildlife encounter at Bernheim was with a skunk. He couldn’t understand our concern when he tried to get close to this tiny black and white critter. After all, his forest has tigers lurking. He found out that indeed, America has wildlife dangers of its own.

Bernheim often inspires you to do something new. Many of the artists who have worked at Bernheim respond to that. So did Chirag, who typically does very realistic wildlife paintings in a studio environment. As usual, he began by doing quick, casual field sketches as a reference for the paintings. Then something happened. First, he said that he was having trouble getting started on the detailed paintings. His subjects were very different from home where he often painted large wildlife. Here he drew small wildlife, fungi, flowers and close-ups of the grasses of our prairie restorations. Second, he expressed surprise at how excited folks got about his sketches. He said, “But they haven’t even seen any finished paintings yet.”  Finally, a realization struck. He said that there were so many new experiences and new impressions here that, instead of one or two large scale paintings, he would do many of these more spontaneous, casual illustrations that people responded to so enthusiastically. He said, “Before coming here, my sketches were mostly for reference. With your reaction to them, I see something more. They are strong in themselves because they are the first response, in the field, to what I see.”

Bernheim is the beneficiary of dozens of expressive sketches which we will use in brochures and publications for years. Chirag also produced some extraordinary, hard to find, detailed illustrations of the native grasses.