"Strata Codex" Painting

Naresh Soni Director of Devgeet Art. Based in my studio in Maninagar, Ahmedabad, India, my artistic journey is rooted in a rich lineage of creative excellence. Trained under the mentorship of my father, Babulal J. Soni, an internationally acclaimed artist, I absorbed foundational techniques and creative philosophies from an early age. I expanded this foundation with formal education at the Sheth C.N. College of Fine Arts and was honoured with the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Academy Award in 1991.For over thirty years, my career has bridged the sacred and the public. I have executed realistic devotional narratives across temples in India, the UK, the USA, Nairobi, and South Africa, alongside major public installations like the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. Beyond the canvas, I extend this structural devotion as Director of Devgeet Art and founder of Fiberglass Shikhar, engineering traditional temple architecture globally. My artworks are held in esteemed collections worldwide, including those of the Honorable Presidents of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and K.R. Narayanan, and the Lord Mayor of Leicester. At the heart of my current studio practice is a single, core philosophy: capturing a "Moment in Movement" through a strict three-tier multidisciplinary ecosystem. The Archive (Abstract Photography): My process begins outside the studio. I wander the world with a camera, collecting fragments of weathered walls, rust, peeling paint, and accidental compositions. These photographs are not artworks to be copied; they are an archive of visual memories that record exactly what my eye notices. The Distillation (Expressions on Paper): In the studio, those memories transform into rapid A3 drawings on paper. Utilizing dry pastel, oil pastel, charcoal, ink, and watercolor, I capture the immediate, raw, and tactile essence of my observations. The Immersion (Large Canvases): These structural drawings finally expand onto monumental canvases where oil, acrylic, ink, water, and hyper-local soil meet. Because oil and water-based acrylics are opposing mediums, they react violently when they merge on the surface. They fight, resist, and create a beautiful chemical and geological tension. I guide this elemental process but never completely control it. I stop painting not when an image is complete, but when the movement reaches a state of absolute stillness within me.