All eyes were glued to the canvas mounted on the easel as the knife in the hands of celebrated artist moved to and forth, upward and downward and in all possible directions to spread the colour.
Some enthusiastic children began copying him, T. Venkateswara Rao, popularly known as Tee Vee, with wide range of colours: sketch pens, crayons, pencils, water and colours.
Tee Vee, using both brushes and knives, was set to draw a landscape. The Russian blue and cobalt blue spread easily on the canvas as the brush moved swiftly from end to end brining the sky onto the canvas. The artist took some crimson, orange, scarlet on the palette, to give shape to the trunk and foliage.
Now and then, Tee Vee moved close to the microphone to explain the nuances of knife painting to the children. “See. I have used ‘two-two’ colours for trunk and foliage of the trees in this landscape. The dark colour one is to indicate the shade formed due to sun and the light colour to show radiance,” he said.
“See now I am using the backside of palette, which is wrapped in a plastic cover,” Tee Vee said adding, “throw the cover and the palette looks spic and span after you finish the painting.”
Demonstration on drawing organised by ‘The Andhra Academy of Arts’ at Sri M S Murthi Lalit Kala Art Gallery here on Sunday was an occasion for the children to experiment with the colours. The children were so deeply involved in the drawing that they did not notice that time moved hurriedly and clock struck 12.30 p.m. by the time Tee Vee finished the landscape.
They scurried to show their works, but, it was a just beginning. The senior artist sat down to share some tips in drawing – landscapes etc. Academy honorary secretary M.V. Saibabu said they would organisea demonstration by Guntur based artist S. Vijay Kumar next month.
Academy vice president S.S. Varaprasad, Mr. Vijay Kumar, artists Govindarajulu, Mallik, Durga Prasad, P.V. Srujan and others were present.
