FIRST POST REGARDING HISTORY OF SIKH PAINTINGS AND CANVAS

Wikipedia has this to say about history of Paintings: "The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts from pre-historic humans, and spans all cultures, that represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, and spanning continents and millennia, the history of painting is an ongoing river of creativity, that continues into the 21st century.[1] Until the early 20th century it relied primarily on representational, religious and classicalmotifs, after which time more purely abstract and conceptual approaches gained favor. Developments in Eastern painting historically parallel those in Western painting, in general, a few centuries earlier.[2] African art, Islamic art, Indian art,[3] Chinese art, andJapanese art[4] each had significant influence on Western art, and, eventually, vice-versa.[5]" History of The Sikh Canvas/Paintings Paitings in sikh history seem to be initiated at the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh but it was mostly done on walls; and not on canvas. Books by historians have mentioned of this particular fact. This form of wall-paintings can also be witnessed in a small portion of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Amritsar; which was conserved by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC). Sikh art on Canvas in the modern time has much to do with Dr. Inderjit Singh ji who was the Chairman of Punjab and Sind Bank and contributed with the bank's wall calendar issued every year with diverse Sikh paintings being showcased. This enthused many other sikh organisations and they started similar work in art conservation and propagation. Many museums were started in gurdwaras throughout the world. This helped a lot of sikh artists to come forward and work for sikh history and be recognized for their work. Those who got good fame were Sr. Sobha Singh, Sr. Kirpal Singh, Sr. Mehar Singh, Sr. Davinder Singh, Sr. Amolak Singh, Sr. R.M.Singh, Sh. Bodh Raj SR..  Kulmohan Singh ,,,, singh.kulmohan@gmail.com and  many more. These paintings usually were based on "Janam Sakhis", stories related to Sikh Gurus and Bhagats and Sikh Warriors for the benefit of educating the generations to come; but most sikhs in the present time are not involved with art and paintings as their hobby or profession. Now is the time to encourage new artists in the midst of our young generation; at their school or college level, to help Sikh art. Nowadays we want to make our children good doctors, good engineers - good professionals but not good artists. It is the moral duty of Sikh and Sikh-thought based organisations like the SGPC, DELHI SIKH GURDWRA PARBANDAK COMMITTEE DELHI, TAKHAT SRI HARIMANDIR JI PATNA SAHIB, TAKHAT SACHKAND SRI HAZOOR SAHIB, CHIEF KHALSA DEWAN AMRITSAR, BHAI VEER SINGH SAHITYA SADAN, DELHI AND AMRITSAR and the PUNJAB AND SIND BANK, to come forward with an agenda for a better and bright future of the Sikh Canvas.