Driven by passion for art, these men traverse path less travelled

Coimbatore: Adorning white plastered walls of the Kasthuri Sreenivasan Art Gallery in the city are paintings based on nature, creative abstracts and Tanjore paintings.

The men — R Sathyavanan, 42, Jeevan V Sakthivel, 46, and M Sinoj, 35 — behind the enthralling array of paintings have one thing common: In spite of their modest backgrounds, they rose to this position because of their passion for paintings.

“My initial inspiration was eminent artists like Ravi Varma and Maruthi and learned to paint pieces similar to them,” said Jeevan V Sakthivel. Likewise, Sathyavanan said, “As a child, I was fascinated by paintings of distinguished artists on front pages of magazines and got inspired.”

While these two artists specialized in oil and acrylic paintings, budding Sinoj is known for his skills in Tanjore paintings, which are works presented on original gold foils mostly on religious theme.

These men spurned lucrative jobs which came their way and devoted themselves to painting, even though the money they receive was meagre and often insufficient to run their families. The painters, who said their only desire is to safeguard this ancient art, train students at various schools and get satisfied at their students success at district and state competitions.

They have produced about 300 paintings each and had showcased their work in more than 15 exhibitions in and around Coimbatore and Bengaluru. They wish to keep producing more and to be recognised more in the field.

Even as the painters talked about their success and dreams, Thulasi, attendant at the gallery, succinctly pointed to these men’s true joy, “While painting, they are engrossed in their work and become unaware of things around them.”