the walkers

To the walkers through the centuries, I dedicate these paintings

hoysala sketches

Recent visit to Belur and Halebid along with friends and families aroused the thrill of my first visit there some fifteen years back. As a student of art it was a great experience. I had spent one complete week for studying and sketching. The star shaped architectural design of these temples with intricate carvings from bottom to top is the marvel of Hoysala architecture. Starting from the rows of carvings of animals and birds, and floral designs , then human life with all its all fire and fury, ending in the celestial world of Gods and Goddesses is really a pilgrimage from earth to heaven. Actually I'm deeply moved by the life of people depicted in these carvings. Here are some coloured sketches directly applied by the colour tubes on paper from the series named "Hoysala sketches".

the inhabitants of the promised land

Journey through the villages of north India resulted in a collection of sketches, which, however transformed into a series of paintings named "the inhabitants of the promised land". See the paintings. I'm very glad to post this today, the great day we celebrate our 64th year of Independence. The first painting is "the inhabitants of the promised land", the second one" the peasant from kapilavasthu"; the third one - landscape"; fourth to eighth - "the inhabitants of the promised land"

kathiroor - my village

Kathiroor, my village is about 8kms. away from Thalassery Town in Kannur District. The rows of shops called "peedika" on both sides of Thalassery-Coorg road which pass by our village, is the main gathering place. The century old Govt. High School, the Gramapanchayat Office, sree Sooryanarayana Temple etc. are located here.

In my childhood there were shops of Ayurvedic medicine - tharimarunnu- where the vidyar, the medical practioner treated us for all our ailments. There was a pot maker - chempotty- who made copper vessels out of copper sheets. The beating sound on copper vessels was the background music of our village. Kollan made all types of household articles out of iron like kathi, pichathi, koduval( knife), mazhu( axe), kaikkott(shovel) etc.. for our daily use. The sweet smell from the Appakkood (oven) spread all over the village. Rotti, Palabiscat, lotta, resk etc were the main products of Aappente appakkode. The hotels garlended with golden yellow bananas were furnished with lengthy tables and benches on one side and a samover on the other side. The tea-maker who made 2 meter tea-thread while preparing tea was a very interesting sight in those days. Vellappam, puttu, kayundda, pazhampori, parippuivada etc. were the delicious items. Avilidian made avil - rice flakes- which is rich in vitamines. All these made our village selfsufficient. In those days , the main occupation besides cultivation was beedi and churut (cigar) making and handloom weaving. All these specialist traders are almost in extinct now . Today in its place we have Electrical & Electronic shops, Vedio shops, Icecream parlors, cosmetic shops etc. But one thing unchanged is in the field of politics. Here people live not only for their livelyhood, but for their ideology. The Gramapanchayat is headed by the CPI(M) . There is one art gallery under the gramapanchayat which may be the first in our country under a local governing body. Visit www. kadirurgramapanchayatartgallery.info/

my first sculpture

About three decades back, a period in my life when I always think about creating my own art, one day it happened; while walking through a countryside I could hear a faint sound of cry; a cry to liberate from the bondage; In the end I could locate the source; It was a moderately big soap stone; I carried it with me ; blindly tried with the available tools to liberate the inner crying object; in the end came out the head of a very old man - my first sculpture.