Sadaanandan p.k

Welcome to an Era & its Art Forms……

Welcome to a World gone by…….

Live the Life of an Age gone by, through a true Master’s Depiction…….

Enter the World of Sadanandan, a Man who learnt the Art Forms under the Ancient Gurukula System.

The Man who reminds his Audience of the Ajanta Paintings, which he openly admits as his Inspiration, with a Capital I, if not the other ALPHABETS, & from which he has evolved his own Style.

A holder of a Diploma & a Masters in the Art Forms from Leading Institutions in the Field in India, the Institute of Mural Painting at Guruvayur & the Karnataka Open University at Mysuru, the Land of the Kings.

But’s let’s not Assume.

This is not the Cut & Paste Style of today.

As a Maestro, he learns, absorbs & assimilates, turning out a Style that may draw from the Past, but is Unique and very much contemporary in its own way.

As the Masters in the Field have remarked, what draws him apart in his Technique is the preponderance of the Colour Blue, distinctly different from the traditional Kerala Mural Style, where RED is KING.

His art-scape features icons,& narratives, inspired by ecology and nature, encased within the natural elements and organic world.

The natural colours add to the art work, reminding one about the times when natural pigments would be the norm. This shows the Samurai in him, where he goes through the Pain, to break the unwritten rules and paint his own sensibilities that enrich the classical art form. Painting natural subjects with natural colours. Cos’, the Colour he uses, is essentially, a natural stain, extracted from Indigo Ferra (plant), lamp soot and laterite soil,apart from the naturally obtained Items, like, Yellow (SulphuricStone), Red (Arsenic Stone) and Cinnabar or Saffron Stone Minerals (excavated & imported from Afghanistan & China), showing his way of reciprocating love to nature. His work begins right from the preparation of colours and papers.

As the Auteur points out, “Chemical-based acrylics came to fore approximately 60 years back. They give me a feeling of pretence. As our environment is beleaguered by rapid urbanisation, ignorance to indigenous way of colouring makes the situation all the more difficult. We are developing at the cost of beautiful nature and its resources. Moreover, natural colours have withstood the test of time – mural paintings in ancient temples in the Southern India are exemplary,”.

This explains his efforts to convert extracted stains to colour.

Not just colours, the artist even prepares his own canvas, with a 300-gsm non-acidic imported paper, that takes a week to be completed.

Talk of Perfectionism……..

In the prominence of blue and green hues in his mural paintings, unlike the traditional customary Reds, he displays his penchant for playing with colours.

The Adept that he is, he urges the promotion of the mural art form, which he declares as something our forefathers got to know about our history through ancient texts and scriptures. He wonders, then,  why not take the tradition forward? Why not Inform, Educate our coming generations about the rich cultural background we have. Encourage the People to come forth, take cognisance of the painstaking efforts that’s present in this art form.

He has applied his Mastery in well known & appreciated Projects like the Renovation Project at the Sree Padmanabha Temple at Trivandrum, a Herculean Project that he led from the front & lasted over 4 Years, resulting in restoration of over 3,400 Sq. Feet of Wall Murals within the Sanctum Sanctorum.

Since then, the then being 1989, when he completed the Project, he has participated in several group shows worldwide. His first solo show was introduced By Smt. Sanjna Kapoor who was the Director of Prithvi gallery and theatre in Mumbai. After its Grand success his solo shows have been arranged all over the world, and continuing till date. He made biblical subjects on wall murals at St. Francis Xavier's Church, Trichur. It was during the renovation of the new church that the artist was asked to paint murals depicting important events from the life of Jesus Christ. He had created 14 murals that depicted the `Way of the Cross'. This has been described as an attempt towards fusion of Indian and Western traditions. He has also assisted his teacher, MammiyoorKrishnankutty Nair, in painting murals at the Shree Padmanabhaswamy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram. He has also done various illustrations and cartoons for books and magazines besides working on restoration of old murals, apart from Murals on wood for the historic Trivandrum Museum & Zoo, Murals on Walls for the ThonnakkalKumaranasan Museum, depicting the  Poems of one of the great poets of Kerala, Shri.Kumaranasan & a Solo Show at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai.

The Artist can currently be seen, admired & interacted with, at the Kochi Muziries Biennale, a regular happy ground for him for the past 30 Years.