It’s almost time for the exhibition to close but the artist comes cheerfully to greet her last guests of the day. Dhanya Jose repeats for the umpteenth time that day, the story behind each of her pictures at the Russian Art Gallery in Thiruvananthapuram in a three-day exhibition.
Her husband Tedy Kanjirathinkal joins the conversation to chip in with explanations about his wife’s artistic passions.
“When we went to buy a kitchen knife, the shopkeeper gave us an artist’s knife. That’s when I thought, why not brush up my old interest in drawing,” says Dhanya, a business consultant with Ernst and Young. Her first inspiration to draw came when she was in school, from a neighbour who used to paint really well. But she kept all her artistic interests confined to the four walls of her room until Tedy came into her life. He inspired her to take up those brushes and colours again. “We decided we should do something beyond our daily job and family life. So we started setting small targets for ourselves,” Dhanya says.
One of the first targets was taking part in the marathon races across the country. The couple prepared to run in 21 km or 10 km long stretches months in advance. “Completing those targets was so fulfilling.” Once their marathon deal was over, they worked on bringing out Dhanya’s drawing collection. Though she had won competitions in her school days she was never trained in art.
Images that appeared on paper were those that were formed in her mind. Using a knife and acrylic shades, she created flowers and rainbows. With brushstrokes she painted the four seasons. With charcoal and pencil, she captured the captivity a plant suffered in a pot and the safety a child experienced on his mother’s shoulders.
Dhanya attributes all her confidence to her software engineer husband. “He’s the force behind my will to stay up till 2 am or 3 am at night to finish a work of art.” The couple, who have a website called www.praarthana.org that offers Christian prayers for Malayalis residing abroad, hopes to add a music album to their small endeavours. “I have some training in Carnatic music and Tedy plays the keyboard and guitar, so may be in a year or two, it could happen” she says.
