Feelings and emotions

Intro: The simplicity and chastity of Indian culture is a recurrence in Raviraj's paintings

By Francis P Barclay

Artistry has been in him right from his childhood. But giving in to the pressure of his parents, he studied science and business management. And he got a clerical job, which soon proved itself to be a barrier to his creative mind. At last, with confidence, he called it quits. S Raviraj, the neo-realistic painter, was thus born.
Revelling in the pool of art, he also took up the job of teaching art. He worked for about 10 years at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) as an art instructor and then went to Saudi Arabia for a two-year assignment as art director in a print publication.
Proving himself to be a versatile genius, he learnt dance and guitar in his leisure time.
Now, Raviraj, recipient of National Award for Best Artist in 1985 and winner of several State-level awards for painting and writing, is the director of the 13-year-old Lalit Kalakshetra, an art school which is teaching over 700 students.

Art buffs had much to relish inside the Jayams Hall this Pongal. They had in front of them 25 assorted odds of serene emotions and feelings captured by Raviraj, director, Lalit Kalakshetra, from the culture and locale of today.
In his neo-realistic way of expressing things, he recreated the scenes that he had come across in real life. He altered them in his own metaphysical style and its values and displayed them for the public at his maiden
exhibition.
Sparking off the aesthetic spirit in a set of styles, the acrylic and oil on the canvases catogorise the mild expressions of Mahatma and Swami Vivekananda.
The artist is accurate in portraying an expressive smile on the broad lips of a gypsy playing the drums, supported by a whistling kid with a doleful heart.
His skill to tickle the emotional aspect of life comes to the fore in the depressed face of the slender and nervous parrot vendor. He finds it easy to butt in on the temperamental prospect, transpiring the scene in a way that
is almost real.
The simplicity and chastity of Indian culture is a recurrence in his paintings. He records people's life in the rural background and the rituals and customs performed by them.
In his paintings, from the tranquil scene of women bathing in a pond and the rituals performed when a girl attains puberty to the curious eyes of stony-broke children posing for a photograph, he is skillful in bringing out
emotions.
The highlights of the exhibition were the paintings on the famous Tamil movie songs Poovirkul olinthirukkum kanikuttam adhisayam (Jeans) and Ovvoru pookalume solkirathae (Autograph).
In a set of other styles with jagged edges and random cluster of lines, he limns people tussling for flood relief. He opens to view his dexterity in handling the hues and organising the space on the canvases and devolves the
collection of reminiscences, for he believes it's the job of an artist.