From being a student of the first batch of BFA Mural Painting at the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Lekha Vyloppilly has come a long way as an artist.
After a long exploration on varied themes and experiments blurring boundaries of mural art, Lekha is getting ready for her next exhibition with a new collection, titled Emerging Buddha.
“For over a year and a half, I’ve been associated with Friends of Tibet (Kochi). My lifelong curiosity about Buddhism, once dormant, rekindled when I came across the 21 meditations of Tara Devi, a goddess in Buddhism,” she says, throwing light on how she began this journey.
It was artist Shoba Menon who suggested getting in touch with the organisation when Lekha enquired about the meditation practice.
“There, I came across a traditional Tibetan Thangka painting of the Medicine Buddha (Bhaisajyaguru), which only deepened my curiosity. The Buddha was painted in a lapis lazuli blue, holding a myrobalan plant in one hand and a bowl of medicinal nectar on the other, ” she explains.
Sethu Das, founder of Friends of Tibet, encouraged this curiosity. “When I went there the first time, I had taken along a painting of Tara Devi to show him. He then suggested that since I paint, I should start painting the Buddha in mural style as well,” she recalls. “You will find many more Buddhas, he assured me,” she adds gleefully. Lekha also credits Sethu for coming up with the title of her collection.
Find more Buddhas, she did. A year and a half later, Lekha has already painted 17 murals for the collection and has also created a few installation pieces made from terracotta.
Recalling how challenging it was to create a mural painting of the Medicine Buddha, Lekha says that she had to do a lot of homework. She referred to books available at the Friends of Tibet library and also got help from Sethu in sourcing reference texts and images. She even studied medicinal plants. “I could have just copied the traditional Tibetan Thangka painting and made my job easier, but I wanted to stick to mural paintings, to my style,” she adds.
Lekha was hooked. Just after finishing the first one, she took on the mission of painting Gautam Buddha. However, this was not just one painting; she painted a series starting from his birth to enlightenment. She then went on to study Tibetan Buddhism, which soon resulted in mandala paintings.
“I have also created installation pieces with terracotta balls that have Tibetan mantras written on them. No one has created installation pieces with mural painting on them before,” she beams.
Lekha kept converting every new knowledge she gained into mural paintings. As she kept expressing her newfound knowledge and fascination, a collection of works took shape, she says.
However, the process was long and detailed. Lekha had to be extremely careful about not making any mistakes in her depictions, since she did not want to risk hurting the sentiments of Tibetan Buddhists.
On August 15, Tushar Gandhi, advisor to Friends of Tibet and great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, visited her studio along with Sethu. “They suggested that I should have a public exhibition soon. The dates are yet to be finalised,” she informs.
The day also marked the opening of her emporium and studio — Lekha Vyloppilly’s Earthen Artyard Emporium located right above her residence in Eroor in Kochi.
Even though the collection was not created with an exhibition in mind, Lekha is both surprised and glad with the outcome and looks forward to opening it for the public soon. However, she is not done yet.
“I still want to create a few more installation pieces for the collection before that,” she signs off.