Taking forward his traditional art style, Kalyan has popularised the folk culture of Bhilwara in the country and around the world. He has given training in art institutions of several countries and his paintings can be seen in many museums in India and abroad.

Kalyan Joshi has been doing ‘Phad’ painting since childhood. He learned this work from his father and says that from generation after generation this work has been passed on in his family for centuries.

Kalyan explains that Phad painting is the folk style of Bhilwara, Rajasthan which is painted as per the tales of Pabuji and Devnarayan by traditional and ancient colours. He says that Phad is always used to give a message and even today he is doing the same work to make people aware about a particular cause through his work. Apart from this, he has done many other works like helping the state government to get maximum votes in elections, painting to give the message of saving water, and has even done several modern experiments in Phad.

The name of Kalyan’s centre is ‘Chitrashala’, through which he has taught Phad painting to children for the last forty years. About five thousand students have learned this art so far and more than two hundred children are earning their livelihood through this. He says that with the change of time, he has also brought a change in his way of working by being active on social media. Through this, he has been able to reach more people.

Kalyan is a resident of Bhilwara, Rajasthan. He did his schooling from there itself. Then he went to The Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara for his further studies. There, at the behest of his professors, he decided to pursue his own work and he returned to Bhilwara. Since then, he continued to experiment with Phad by creating new stories and through these new stories and new paintings, he has made a new identity for himself in this art world.

Talking about his achievements, Kalyan says that he has received the National Award from the Government of India for ‘Phad Painting.’ Apart from this he has received awards from many institutions and state governments. He shares that he founded the ‘Institute of Making Arts’ in 1994 with one of his artist friends, KG Kadam, to encourage the painters in Bhilwara. And in the last thirty years they have put forty exhibitions of painters of Bhilwara through this institute.

Kalyan says that even in the time of Covid, he made a Phad painting through which he gave the message of caution to the people. He depicted the entire scenario of this disease from its starting till it took a formidable form in his painting and described it to people. He also relentlessly continued his mission of teaching this art even during such difficult times. He has done multiple workshops through online mediums with the help of different organisations, NGOs, art societies and Chitrashala in which not only the people of the country but people from the whole world connected with him and learned this art.

Kalyan suggests to everyone that shortcuts should not be taken for anything because even if you reach somewhere by that path, in between you will miss out on a lot of experiences.

Kalyan’s role model has always been his father because he has learned everything in life from his father only.

According to Kalyan, Education is necessary but Experience is more important than Education in the field of Art. He says that education is a slow process while experience is a fast one in which you keep on learning and experience new things.

Kalyan advises that if someone wants to make their future in this field, then first of all you should take Arts as your subject after 10th std. Then you can do MA in Drawing, Masters in Fine Art or you can go in the field of designing or any other course you may choose because this field is very vast. He says that even if you are not involved in education, you can get into the business of art because art needs constant practice which makes a person perfect.