For the last two decades, Suryakant Gaonkar has kept the stone carving art form alive by preserving all the sculpted stones and woods at his residence in the Sattari Taluka. The mural sculptors of Dipaji Rane and Dada Rane at Valpoi were sculpted by Suryakant Gaonkar. He has carved more than 300 sculptures on wood as well as on stones.
Suryakant Gaonkar who had no basic education in this field, taught himself the stone carving art with strong determination. “To be honest I had done my education till SSC. In life I wanted to try something different so I tried something new, different and unique,” said Gaonkar.
Initially, Gaonkar started carving on wood and slowly later he shifted to stone carving. The sky is the limit, he began crafting on aluminum foil, plastic, bottle art, etc.
When asked about educating others about this art form, Gaonkar said, “Since 2009 I have stopped going to exhibition to display my work due to which few of my art pieces have been damaged. Few programs and event I have been called wherein I take only 4-5 art pieces to show the students about the art form.”
Gaonkar began his career as a sculptor in 1997 when he first started to carve on woods. Later in 2004 he began carving on stones too. He wishes to have his own museum or an exhibition dedicating his art where he will be working in sculpting new sculptures only for the museum.