India, Sept. 3 -- We live in an age where we constantly present ourselves through images, from carefully framed and filtered selfies to perfectly curated Instagram feeds. But where selfies are performative, painting is an act of attention, and of looking closely at the world. When you paint someone's face, you spend hours looking at them. You notice things that a photograph might flatten - the way the light changes across the face, the slight tension around the eyes, the rhythm of someone's breathing, the way they hold their head when they are tired or thoughtful. A painted portrait preserves a particular act of looking. That is the charm of portraiture. A contemporary artist who does this exceptionally well is Varad Bang from Aurangabad,...