Founder of Emblem design studio, Jayesh Sachdev is a pop art specialist. "This is quite an unfamiliar concept in India. It was a year and a half back that I started such paintings. I paint personalities and popular figures," says the artist who initially started with black and white nudes.

"I was fascinated by Andy Warhol style of paintings.I decided to get into pop art after seeing them," says Sachdev who enjoys painting with oil paints and acrylics.

" The best part about such painting is that when I start painting it is a blank canvas but when the painting is over it is very fulfilling to see the joy and the excitement on the faces of the family members," says Sachdev who feels that the awareness about painting as an art is increasing amongst the people of Pune.

"I have seen paintings. I have even had paintings in my house but I never thought that I myself would one day be a painter," says Leena Thadani who started painting as a hobby. "I do not have any formal education in painting. I used to do sketches but I worked with paint and a brush only a year back," unveils Thadani.

"What I like about abstracts is that I paint the canvas with a particular emotion and it evokes altogether different emotions in the observer's mind. I love listening to what they say about my paintings," saying this she adds, " I remember one painting that had red swirls. While working on it I had a meditative theme in mind but when one of my friends saw the picture, he could see the way to hell in that painting.

With more than 40 years of teaching experience, Raman Sutavani believes that colours are felt in heart. After training the teachers on a subject like drawing, does she feel art can be taught? "It can be encouraged. Art is a combination of a number of things like emotions, thinking, skills and imagination. And all these things can very well be worked upon.," believes Sutvani who calls herself a trained painter.

"What is most challenging is to be able to transfer the emotions to observers. You have to be emotionally 'similarly tuned'," says the Picasso and M F Hussain fan. " If you see Picasso's paintings of women, you will come to know how easily he conveys her agony to the viewers," she comments.

"I want to portray the colours that Ravishankar's sitar notes can evoke. I want to show the music flowing and now I am working on it," says Sutavani.