HYDERABAD: Chitral Narender, an art teacher and artist, felt restless when he missed his 90-minute commutes from his house in Secunderabad to Rajendera Nagar where he teaches during the lockdown. A rather busy artist, he decided to use the time to start a series that he had been planning - rice grain art.
When he started in July while taking online classes for BVBV school in Rajendra Nagar, he did not really think it would become a big series with 108. "I wanted it to have a Bathukamma theme as that is our biggest festival in a year. I started with a handful — 15 actually, but it got exciting that I went up till 108 to complete the series as 108 is considered an auspicious number.
The art work on every grain is different from another," says the 50-year-old artist who used rice grains, Indian ink and Fevicryl to draw those minute lines on the grains. How exactly does one paint or sketch on a rice grain? Is it even visible? "Yes, an artist should always have the right vision or he can never be an artist. I used a magnifying glass to give the final touches to the eyes or jewellery on the women in my grains.
Otherwise, I can just put a rice grain and draw/sketch or paint on it without any other visual aid except my glasses," says the award-winning artist. He used zero and double zero brushes to achieve the effect. Incidentally, the corona lockdown also helped him begin in his own YouTube channel. "I started giving online classes and for students who could not connect due to poor connectivity, I also posted them on my own channel.
Surprisingly, they got hundreds of views, especially the videos on Ganesha scribble art, Bathukamma finger colour art, Durga pencil art Rabindranath Tagore knife art," says the artist who has posted about 20 videos so far. Narender, who specialises in water colours, pastels, drawings etc. and has put up many commercial art exhibitions previously, believes that we all are born artists.
"Remember the time we all scribbled on the walls as toddlers. We all have the creative, artistic spirit in us. But we forget to nurture the same when we grow up. It is still not too late to rediscover this beautiful, meditative and productive talent," he urges everyone. Narender now hopes to put up an exhibition of his series if he gets an opportunity.
— Manju Latha Kalanidhi kalanidhi@ newindianexpress.com @mkalanidhi