Garden of delight

His colourful narrative of paintings have decorated the living rooms of homes and sat on auction podiums where they fetched handsome prices. Now, the veteran from Kerala is showing a large body of works that include large oils and three-dimensional sculptural forms that reflect his concerns of line and detailing.

“I had moved from urban reality to embrace a traditional style, when a tribal group in Rajasthan with their vibrant ethos gripped my imagination,” says the artist who once taught in Jamia Milia Islamia on traditional murals in Kerala.

He fused his knowledge of the murals with his fascination of the tribes and came up with a unique blend of art that is distinctly his own.

His work is often allegorical and the densely vegetative lotus pond is one of his favourite metaphors for the matrix of life. Beautiful and decorative, this ecosystem gives birth to hybrid creatures, a goat with a woman’s head, a winged seductress or a newborn babe wrapped in the folds of a lotus-leaves. Often we see the artist rendering a mocking self portrait of himself as an owl. “I use Indian mythology but it is important for me to re-contextualise them which is why I often include a self-portrait,” says the artist who also has executed a series of individual portraits of village belles facing the viewer in a frontal and inquisitive manner, as if they were curious about the world outside the canvas.

Ramachandran’s obvious delight in observing men and women in their natural settings often result in curious fantasies. The artist’s imagination converts fragmented moments into drawings contoured by powerful swiping lines resembling unruly motions of wind or sometimes restrains of any solid natural form. His mastery over narrating ephemeral yet engaging moments of observation into short-lived story lines turns his works into visual delights.

The show will be on till October 14 at Jehangir Art Gallery