Palette of peace

Peace is a common motif running in all the works of Ahimsa artist Ignatius Xavier Joseph. All his paintings are accompanied by a poem.

Ignatius Xavier Joseph at a workshop for students.

Ahimsa artist Ignatius Xavier Joseph displayed his new art work done on Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. The painting was unveiled by Sumanth, a Hyderabadi doing his B.Tech in Gandhinagar. “Youth voted for Modi so I wanted a youngster to inaugurate the painting,” says the artist.

A self-taught artist, Ignatius has been painting for 30 years now. Peace is a common motif running in all his works. He turned an ‘Ahimsa’ artist 12 years ago after an encounter with Jain monks. “I became a vegetarian and wondered why art can’t be vegetarian as well,” he says with a smile.

Ahimsa art

Elaborating on the Ahimsa art, he says: “I use cloth instead of a brush and blend two opposite mediums like oil and acrylic on canvas. This is to show how people with different ideas can live peacefully. White symbolises peace and is a constant colour in my works so is the illusion effect developed because of the scratch by a pen knife. Finally, all my paintings are accompanied with a poem.”

Holding workshops The artist is a regular at schools and colleges holding workshops.

His recent workshop saw two youngsters create a painting titled ‘Nirbhaya Act’ based on the Delhi rape incident.

In Rameshwaram, he held a workshop titled ‘Cleanliness is Godliness’ for school students.

His future works include one on Mother Teresa and another highlighting Telangana symbols.