A temple mural may seem an unlikely trigger for an automotive artist.
But, coming across one in a neighbourhood temple about six years ago inspired Arjun C. Mohan, a mechanical engineer from Udayamperoor, to turn his passion for drawing into a full-time profession.
“There was this mural on one side of the wall while the other side was blank. I felt that a mural on that space also would make it complete,” recollected Mr. Mohan. But for someone who had until that point done only line drawings in his notebooks, creating a mural painting straight away was not easy. Being an automobile enthusiast from childhood, he decided to paint a car to familiarise himself with the ebb and flow of painting.
While he eventually painted the mural, which now adorns the temple wall, the 30-year-old has since then turned fully into automotive artistry, with a preference for acrylic painting. Recently, his acrylic painting of the iconic Ferrari F40 sports car on a 7x5 ft. canvas was bought by Karan Gautam Adani, son of industrialist Gautam Adani, for an undisclosed amount. He probably happened to see Mr. Mohan’s others paintings on social media and was so impressed that he commissioned the young artist to paint the Ferrari F40.
“He may have been attracted by the detailing in the works. It [Ferrari F40] was drawn over a period of three to four months since I love to work on multiple works at the same time,” said Mr. Mohan.
His obsession for details is such that even the screw on a car headlamp is visible in his works. That along with the size of the painting determines the price tag. While there has been no dearth of enquiries for his paintings, he has retained the majority of his original works out of a desire to display them in an exhibition, which he plans to organise soon.
Mr. Mohan has mostly drawn iconic cars, the majority of them being variants of Porsche, which has manufactured serial winners at 24 Hours of Le Mans, a 24-hour-long endurance-centric sports car race held annually near the French town of Le Mans.
