KANNUR: As the rain poured outside, a cascade of swaras flowed inside the auditorium, turning the atmosphere colourful and sending the audience into a rapturous delight. The artist, sitting only a few metres away from the stage, had a book open on his lap and was busy drawing on it.
Suresh K Nair (52), assistant professor of the visual arts department of Banaras Hindu University, was at Payyannur for the last few days, deeply immersed in the continuous flow of music of the Thureeyam Music Festival, which concluded on Sunday.
“I learned that this was the 18th edition of the Thureeyam festival on arriving here. I am here as Swami Krishananda Bharathi had asked me to be present during the concluding session as a guest. I’m really impressed. There were times when I was completely swept away by the spiritual flow of music performed by the best from the country,” Suresh said.
Suresh, who hails from Vellinezhi in Palakkad, had mastered the art of mural painting from the Institute of Mural Painting, Guruvayur, and had later pursued his passion for painting from Shantiniketan, Kolkata, where he was greatly influenced by artists like K G Subramaniam, Jagan Chowdhary and Somanatha Hore, who were there as faculty members of fine arts.
“Like many youngsters of Kerala, I, too, was fascinated by the illustrations of A S, Namboothiri and M V Devan, published in literary magazines then,” Suresh said.
At Kolkata, it was an experience of unlearning in the beginning. “When I went there, I had the belief that I knew something about art. But soon, the vast world of contemporary art gave me some hard lessons. This helped me focus, get better,” Suresh added.
After his Shantiniketan days, he got an appointment at Sanskrit University, Kaladi, and remained there for around six years. “It was in 2007 that I got the job at Banaras Hindu University,” Suresh said. “Life in Kashi transformed the man and artist in me. According to UNESCO, Varanasi is the city of music. There are more than 1,000 musicians in the town. I, too, cannot escape the magical web of music while being there. That was how I started drawing music,” he said.
“Every week, I used to attend three or four concerts in Banaras. While listening to music, I would start drawing images. These are not artworks, but these drawings greatly help me in preparing for my next artwork,” he said.
Suresh’s Shivalinga mural painting at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport was a widely acclaimed work. He was also praised for his 700-foot-long and 10-foot-high ‘Wall of Peace’ painted on the wall of Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Cherupulasserry.