“I won’t tell you. It’s my thozhil ragasiyam — trade secret,” says R. Venkata Krishnan. The artist employs a special kind of base for his colours. He later reveals that he uses the sticky gum that oozes out of the karuvelam tree. While most artists have moved on to synthetic substances, the 50-year-old prefers natural gum. “It’s long lasting. Paintings done using vela gondhu have a special quality. This is an old formula I respect,” he says. He is among the last few artists to nurture the traditional ways of the Serfoji style of art, popularly known as Tanjore art.
Venkata Krishnan’s tiny studio in Triplicane is in itself a work of art. The Parathasarathy temple tank is to its left and the temple is a stone’s throw away to its right. Built with metal sheets, it’s inhabited by gods and goddesses who smile from framed canvases. The artist is seated on the floor, his painting propped on a wooden stool. Plastic bowls filled with paint and brushes surround him; behind him, his guru T. Jaganatha Raju oversees his work from inside a rusted frame that sits on an old trunk. The words ‘Thanjai Carnatic Chitralaya’ are painted unassumingly on the metal wall. Every now and then, passers-by stop to gaze at the paintings inside or the artist bent over his work. He never looks up.
Many years ago, artist Silpi travelled the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu and did fascinating sketches of temple architecture and gods and goddesses inside the sanctum sanctorum.
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“Silpi did not travel to two temples alone — the Paravasudeva temple in Mannargudi and the Veeraragavan temple in Tiruvallur,” he explains. It’s Venkata Krishnan who first sketched the main deities in these temples.
Venkata Krishnan has been painting ever since he was in school. Raised in an environment where life revolved around temples and deities, he naturally painted them. He travelled from one city to another during his prime to do wall and ceiling art for temples and paintings for religious centres. His ceiling art can be seen inside a mantapam in the Parathasarathy temple. “I started travelling right after school,” he says. Now, his paintings are doing the travelling instead. “This one is going to Marthandam,” he says pointing to a painting of Vishnu in progress.
Venkata Krishnan has also done portraits for educational institutions. To him, the best thing about painting deities is the attention they receive. “Once it reaches its destination, this painting, for instance, will be worshipped by hundreds of people. They will garland it and shower it with flowers,” he smiles.
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For the time being though, the painting sits in a sheet metal room in Triplicane, listening to the echoing temple bell.