KOCHI: Art was something Yadhu Krishnan R took to at a tender age. With his father Reghunadhan K being an artist himself, Yadhu grew up in a household bursting with art at its seams. His childhood memories are all about artistic pursuits. “There was a time when not a paper in the house was devoid of some scribbles of mine. My mother tells me how I would start drawing at anything that I could lay my hands upon,” chuckles Yadhu.
Yadhu says his inspiration for the world of art was his father. “I grew up seeing all the colours and his artworks. I was initiated into art just by seeing his works,” says Yadhu. There was no formal training in art for Yadhu. “My father always asked me to observe and come up with my own style. I could always ask him suggestions and that helped,” Yadhu recalls. His journey through art received a new dimension after his father gifted him Salim Ali’s ‘Book of Indian Birds’.
It was in Class V that Yadhu received the book. The book replete with Carl D’Silva’s detailed drawings of birds threw open yet another world to him, beckoning him into the world of birds. Enamoured by the myriad birds, Yadhu’s journeys to the wild began, while it also fuelled in him a passion to graphically record the birds he encountered on paper. “At first, I didn’t know they were drawings. They were such detailed drawings of birds. I started trekking into the forests to watch the birds,” says Yadhu.
At 29, for this statistician working at Technopark, art and birds is still a passion. The monochrome is his forte. Yadhu uses graphite pencils to bring to life the wonders of the wilderness. “I love doing the detailing in the drawings of birds,” he says.
