My name is Reuben Chris Rego and I am an Engineer by profession currently doing my tour of duty, offshore, off Abu Dhabi. For starters let me start by saying that I never was or am an artist; neither a fulltime one nor even a part-time one for that matter. No claims on that account whatsoever, folks! With absolutely no training in arts, it’s something of an on-and-off (quintessentially ‘off’ than ‘on’; if I may interject) kind of quirk in me that surfaces; unbidden, and there I go giving vent to it.
Riding Hell for Leather
Thirty five summers on earth and for the life of me, I still can’t attribute any reason in particular for trying my hand at sketching. Suffice it to say that it just happened & if memory serves me right, I guess I first tried my hand at sketching way back when I was about 8 years old doodling around on any bit of paper that I could lay my hands on. So much so, that I still recall ‘defacing’ my late aunt’s notebooks while she was graduating and boy, did I get a pasting for that!
A Bundle of Joy or a Monster in the Making?
My parents and brothers knowing that I could draw a line or two; albeit a straight one a tad crookedly, gave much needed encouragement. The portals of St. Aloysius, Mangalore, literally being home in my formative years, moods were perpetually upbeat and I did dabble in this fledgling ‘passion’ of mine. I did try my hand at ‘India ink’ for a while but later gave it up and stuck to the good old pencil. In fact, all my sketches were drawn on whatever paper I could lay my hands on with the first pencil I could find lying around! With a penchant for sketching curvaceous figures and human expressions, sketching nudes are obviously a favorite theme. There, it’s just doing my two-bit something to cater to my eccentricity, you see, but somehow I have yet to seriously get down to it!
Scent of a Woman
Being involved in sports while harboring aspirations to pursue a professional course; and the consequent paucity of time and the vagaries of life; well, sketching obviously had to take a backseat not to say that it was a priority before. The first drawing shown herein; titled ? ‘Riding Hell for Leather’ was drawn in 1989 just after I passed out my P. U. course. Absolutely zilch since then owing to a rather protracted hiatus while I graduated and subsequently sought my ‘fortune’ overseas and then one fine day in mid 2003, the sketching bug bit me again! The result, ? ‘Scent of a Woman’ and ‘A Bundle of Joy or a Monster in the Making?’
Based offshore with 10?12 hours work schedules 7 days a week on a rotation shift of 70/20; well, the story continues – zilch until the bug comes looking for me yet again!
Author: Reuben Chris Rego- UAE