Urban Sketcher Avidip Kundu Captures Kolkata's Soul Through Pen and Ink
A tram glides past, the historic façade of Laha Bari rises in the background, and a car celebrating the city stands parked along Bidhan Sarani. Nearby, urban sketcher Avidip Kundu sits with a sketchbook in hand, meticulously translating the vibrant moment into intricate lines of pen and ink. As the city pulses around him, the scene gradually takes shape on paper, capturing not just the architecture but the very atmosphere of Kolkata itself.
When Kolkata Becomes the Subject
Kundu's journey with urban sketching began at an early age. "I have been working with pen and ink since I was 14 years old. From the beginning, I decided that my subject will be Kolkata and my medium will be paper and pen," he explains. Growing up in North Kolkata, he found endless inspiration in the neighbourhood's verandahs, tramlines, and ageing buildings. "Kolkata has a rustic and vintage texture. In that sense, pen and ink works beautifully with the city. Sometimes I add watercolour layers, but the base remains pen and ink."
He began focusing on the city more deliberately around 2007–08, a time when few artists were documenting Kolkata through live sketching. "At that time, very few artists were treating the city itself as a subject," he recalls. Over the years, his work expanded beyond well-known landmarks to the quieter details that define the city's unique identity. "Kolkata has a different structure and heritage. Many of those heritage elements are slowly disappearing, and that made me want to document them. Not only heritage buildings but also the intrinsic character of the city - trams, rickshaws, lanes, and verandahs."
Sketching the City Live: Challenges and Rewards
Urban sketching, Kundu emphasizes, is fundamentally different from studio work. "Urban sketching is a live atmosphere - a combination of the subject and the environment. Kolkata is a city environment, Bombay is a different environment, Delhi is another. The challenge is to capture that environment." Working outdoors in a bustling city like Kolkata presents its own set of difficulties. "The first difficulty is that there is very little scope for artists to sit and draw comfortably in public spaces. You have to work with many limitations."
Yet, that immediacy also becomes the strength of the medium. "The advantage is that the time you spend in that place becomes part of the drawing. The reflection of that moment and environment gets captured in the picture." For Kundu, the act of sketching is a deeply personal tribute to the city. "Kolkata city itself is my favourite. If I do not love a city, I cannot give my best to it. Whatever I draw is my way of contributing to Kolkata."
The Reality of Drawing Live in Kolkata
Urban sketching captures a city exactly as it exists in a specific moment - the shifting light, passing trams, and everyday movement all become integral parts of the drawing. This practice pushes artists to observe the city closely, from balconies and tram tracks to the rhythm of people moving through the streets.
- Each sketch serves as a visual record of a changing city, preserving details of neighbourhood life and architecture that may slowly disappear over time.
- Working on the street requires adapting to the city's dynamic pace - crowds gathering, traffic flowing past, and curious onlookers pausing to watch the creative process.
- Artists often operate with limited space and constantly changing conditions, making speed and spontaneity essential to the entire process.
Kundu reflects on a particular scene: "Bidhan Sarani is one of the prime heritage stretches of North Kolkata. With the tram passing by, Laha Bari in the background and the car parked there, the scene captures the character of the city perfectly. It is the essence of Kolkata that gives both the car and the sketch their meaning."
