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Drama with colours
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When the artist has also been involved with children’s theatre, you can expect some free spirited work
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Big and bright canvasses L.Ravi with his paintings Photos:K. Ananthan
When a young colleague saw the paintings, she clapped her hands and squealed in delight. My sentiments exactly. That is what one feels like doing at the first glimpse of L. Ravi’s works. But, “Joyous” would be the more professional way of describing them.
Ravi calls his series “Meditations’ and obviously for him there is nothing subdued, sombre or understated about the higher plane of existence! “People do meditation for peace and happiness. For me this is it,” he says. There is a very good reason why Ravi’s paintings make you want to react like a kid.
Incredible colours
He is a drama teacher in a school in Tumkur, and he says nothing gives him more pleasure than spending time with kids who are yet untouched by cynicism and artifice. With them you get what you see, and it is the same with the paintings he has done. Big and bright canvasses, well-defined figures, incredible colours, and bold strokes.
“There is nothing very intellectual about my paintings,” says Ravi and makes no apologies for it. There are no pre-conceived notions, no philosophy, no obtuse references.
“I just draw and colour, what comes into my mind,” he says. Much like the kids at school. Ravi did his bachelors in fine arts, but then when he wanted to do his masters, he found ‘art’ was not offered as a course for study. But theatre was. “Since theatre is also a form of art, I said, ‘why not’. And, here I am,” he says.
Apart from teaching drama, he is part of Kalam — ‘A little art movement theatre group’ in Puducherry.
Staging success
He has written and directed a lot of plays for kids and has participated in National School of Drama’s Children’s Theatre. “The freedom from restrictions, imagination, happiness and spontaneity of children keeps me energetic and young,” says Ravi, and declares that is what comes through in his vigorous paintings.
L Ravi’s paintings are up for display and sale at the Kasthuri Sreenivasan Art Gallery, on Avanashi Road, as part of its Kaleidoscope – 2008 series. It is open to the public till May 11, between 10 a.m and 6.30 p.m. The paintings are priced at Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. For details contact: 0422-2574110
PANKAJA SRINIVASAN
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