SG Mahadevan, a self-taught artist, born and brought up in Chennai is excited about his first ever solo show titled Tamil Nadu’17. While he has displayed several of his works along with his daughter Shweta, who is also an artist — this is the first time in eight years that he is going solo. “My first show which consists of 33 paintings is completely crafted with pen and ink. Getting to draw in black and white is something that inspires me and I would say it is my favourite subject. I also indulge in cartoon painting, water, oil and acrylic as well,” Mahadevan begins the conversation.
Notable works of Mahadevan
The theme of Tamil Nadu’17 is to cover many specialties of the state including temples, monuments, symbols, birds, kabaddi, etc, reveals Mahadevan. “There is a particular painting about Srirangam temple which took me two months to complete. Usually, when I am sketching a temple structure, I tend to take one and a half months at least to complete it so that I have enough time to bring in the intricacies of the temple. I would say that this is just a sample of Tamil Nadu and there are a lot of important stuff to cover on this topic,” he adds.
For Mahadevan, sketching and painting is a hobby. “I am an entrepreneur in the plastic industry. I would say that sketching is my stress-buster. Art runs in my family. My wife is a classical singer, my son is a violinist and my daughter Shweta, an artist has won Kalai Vellamani award for her work. She teaches around 80 kids and I help her with it. Time management is the key and I make sure I resort to painting whenever I’m stressed.”
The 56-year-old entrepreneur- cum-artist takes inspiration from several personalities of his ilk. “Artist Jayaraj and Dr. Ganesh inaugurated my exhibition in Chennai. I love Jayaraj’s work and also I take inspiration from Jaya Prabakar’s paintings. His strokes in line drawings are exceptional,” he explains.
Notable works of Mahadevan
Mahadevan’s future plan is to release a book that has his collection of paintings. He asserts, “My aim is to combine my artworks about Tamil Nadu into a book and publish it. There are tons of topics that I couldn’t cover in the exhibition which I would love to have in my book. Earlier, Manohar Devadas had published a book about Madurai. That was my inspiration and if somebody supports my work, I would definitely come up with the book as soon as possible.”
He also stresses on the fact that each and every person should indulge in some kind of art. “Age does not matter; it is the interest that helps in grooming a person. Also, if you keep yourself occupied in some sort of art, you will be able to lead a stress-free life,” he concludes.
(The sale-cum-exhibition will go on till October 15 at Hotel Ambassador Pallava from 11 am to 7 pm)
