CHENNAI: The canvasses hung around the gallery at DakshinaChitra have a splatter of green, yellow, blue, red and brown paint on them. At first, they seem abstract, but on careful observation, one can see the faint outline of an elephant with white tuckers peeking through the splattering of paint.
The collection of paintings is a part of Karthikeyan Pitchaimallaian’s collection, The Enigmatic Imagery, which was showcased in DakshinaChitra on Sunday. The Madurai-based artist, who quit his job as a campaign designer at Vijay TV five years ago, began working on this collection in February this year.
The exhibition was inaugurated by the Consul-General of Spain, Anthony Lobo.“I was not satisfied with my art. I had to break my creative process and thought to go back to work, and then getting back to that rhythm was very difficult.
During my off days at Vijay TV, I would take trips to see elephants in the Western Ghats. I would go to see them at every opportunity,” said Karthikeyan.
The 46-year-old artist now lives in Cholamandal Arts Village in Injambakkam, and spends his days painting. He cannot explain his love for the animal.
He uses his art to be the messenger between the beasts of the forest and humans of the civilisation, in an attempt to inform people of the issues like deforestation and land-grabbing in forests.
The Aruppukkottai-born artist looks up to Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian abstract artist, and has produced an exhibition based on the painter’s works. In one end of the gallery, a quote by French painter and Impressionist Edgar Degas says, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
Karthikeyan, a self-schooled artist, said, “When you are in the forest, you can’t predict when or where you will see the elephants. I used the dark and light colours to recreate the organic texture of the forest, and did not force the material by allowing the paint to flow on the canvas. I tried to find the elephants on the canvas and either brought it forward or pushed it back, just like how you would see them in the forest.”