A small hut, mountains and coconut trees are not unusual topics for a painting. But when they are done, not on a canvas but a tablet barely two centimetres in diameter, it is unusual. Sumesh specialises in this kind of painting. He has nearly 50 tablets on which he has painstakingly drawn and painted, political leaders, freedom fighters, monuments and so on. Kannadasan, Thiruvalluvar and Mahathma Gandhi… all find space on the tiny pills. He has also managed to scribble messages against alcoholism and smoking on some of them.
Sumesh got the brainwave to do this when he was once lying sick in bed. “I could only see medicines all around me. It was then that this idea occurred to me. I began to paint on them.”
He has used pencils to write and sketch pens to paint. The space constraint is challenging says Sumesh. “One picture takes at least one hour to complete.” It was not easy, in the beginning. “Unlike drawing on paper, you cannot use an eraser here as it would leave black marks. So you have to get it right at the first attempt.”
Sumesh is otherwise an automobile engineer. He now plans to create a sculpture of Ganesha out of wax. “My inspiration is Raja who heads an organisation, “Unnale Mudiyum Thambi”. I am also a part of it. We as artists try to bring out paintings with a difference.”
He has participated in many art competitions and won prizes in his school drawing competitions. He wants to contribute his work to his school. “I want this to be kept in the principal’s room, so that all children in my school can see it.”
