Description :

Balkrishna Dattatrey Shirgaonkar hailed from Kasaba Tarle, near Kolhapur. He was initiated to painting from his childhood and his father encouraged him to nurture it. His early works were appreciated by Abalal Rehaman; who encouraged him to pursue art. For further training Shirgaonkar came to Mumbai and joined J.J.School of Art. After completing the course he got the opportunity to join the college as a Professor and later he became head of the painting department. He also wrote numerous articles for Roop-Bheda. He went to Shantiniketan for a year and learned different styles of painting. Shirgaonkar participated in a number of group and solo shows of his paintings and won accolades from critics and connoisseurs. Though Shirgaonkar had mastery in portraits and abstracts, landscape was his forte.

He said, "Painting is not easy. One has to put in dedicated efforts for years to master the art. I believe in experimentation. I feel that an artist must have strong fundamental knowledge of painting and colouring before trying abstract or other varieties of modern paintings."

He passed away in 2006.