City-based artist Pamarti Siva Naga Rao, known for miniature and other forms of creative arts, on Sunday performed a feat in an effort to set a record and highlight the plight of artists in today’s digital world.
Mr. Siva painted the portrait of actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan while riding his motorcycle for over 23 minutes on the Karakatta Road near Tadepalli. Mr. Siva chose Mr. Pawan Kalyan as it was the latter’s birthday. “Earlier I performed the same feat in 37 minutes. Today it took just 23 minutes for me to complete the portrait,” Mr. Siva said.
Hard practice
Asked about the perils in performing such a stunt, Mr. Siva said that he had practised for one year to draw on a two feet wide and two and a half-foot-high canvas while riding his motorcycle.
On violation of the road safety rules, he says he is forced to do so just to highlight the plight of the artists. The 39-year-old artist feels that the artists are losing sheen in society and he took this initiative to highlight their issues and to earn recognition.
“I manage the cardboard canvas and motorcycle handle with the left hand and have brush in the right hand with which I also manage to periodically accelerate the engine.
While the canvas was placed on the handle, colours were placed on the fuel tank,” he said.
Eyeing record books
Mr. Siva said that he had applied to create a record with organisations like Guinness Book of World Records, Limca Book of Records and several others before performing Sunday’s stunt.
The entire event was recorded and the same would be sent to the organisations for verification, he said.
