CHENNAI: Are you an adult who loves colouring but can’t find the right way to channel your passion? In that case, meet Subadra Kalyanaraman and her husband Balajee, who recently self-published Shakuntala and Her Magic Box — a Madhubani-themed colouring book for adults.
Subadra has been pursuing painting as her hobby, although by profession she is a market researcher for IMRB. She began painting in 2014 but began to work on the book only in December 2015.
“I hand-drew the entire book, which comes in a pull-out and frame format,” explains Subadra. “It’s based on a short dreamy/surreal story (written by Balajee) about Shakuntala, a girl who loves music.”
Since colouring is already popular as a stress buster, the couple decided to publish a Madubani-themed book. Running through her Facebook timeline, one can easily find her love for art. Most of the posts she shares are about painting and colouring.
The book had also been recognised at the Madubani art exhibition that is being held in the Mumbai International Airport since March 2016.
Prior to that, the book was also exhibited in an event organised by the Madras Mag, an independent literary magazine that encourages artists to exhibit their art work.
Overwhelmed, she says, “We received really good response in the event; we printed 150 copies and all of it was sold by the end of two days. People of all age groups, from kids to 80-year-olds purchased our book.”
Sitting with us, Subadra shares how she decided on the theme — Madhubani.
“It was during a visit to Singapore last year, when my husband and I went to a popular book store; we found a vast collection of colouring books. We also noticed that all the existing colouring books revolve around themes like flora, fauna, Mandala patterns and zentangles. That’s when we decided to work on something that reflects India. We zeroed in on Madhubani,” she smiles. “It’s an art form that’s very close to my heart, and it yields well to colouring as it has many beautiful patterns and exploration with colours is quite possible.”
Since they wanted to design the book in a pull-out and frame format, they picked Madhubani as it would suit that purpose of someone wanting to colour and frame their art work.
So was this a one-of-a-kind experiment? “Yes it is. It is the first book I have worked on. Prior to this, I have only been pursuing painting as a hobby,” she says.
“Madhubani is too intricate an art form for a child to colour it. Besides, adults around the world are taking to colouring as therapy, or a form of relaxation. This will definitely help them.”
But Shakuntala and Her Magic Box is not only a colouring book, you get to follow a story as well.
“Once we decided to work on the book, we didn’t want to have random patterns page after page. We thought it would be nice to have a simple story line that runs across the book. Balajee came up with the story idea, based on which I drew the art works.”
(The book costs `1,150 and contains 16 art works, followed by two pages of story panels)