KOLLAM: Mary Sheeba, a staff nurse at the district hospital in Kollam, is an artist by passion. Finding spare time to paint pictures of her dream amid her busy profession, she has also conducted several painting exhibitions. However, she longs to meet Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of UAE, to present him with a portrait of him drawn when she heard about his visit to inaugurate SmartCity Kochi.
“It took almost three months to complete the work, The Man of Love and Peace in Gulf, intended to present to him during his visit to Kochi as announced earlier. Unfortunately, it was his representative who visited the place for attending the function. I wanted to draw him precisely because he's an influential leader,” Ms Sheeba told DC.
The painting represents the ruler as the sun in the solar system that attracts and unites all other leaders of nations for peace, represented by the celestial bodies all around him in the picture. She says she got the talent of drawing pictures from her grandmother who was a painting teacher in a nearby school. Ms Sheeba is a self-taught painter except for a few drawing classes she had attended at the Chitrakalamandalam in Thiruvananthapuram. She completed her B.Sc in Botany from Fatima College, Kollam.
“I prefer oil paints to any other medium as for me it is easier to make changes and won’t get dried up so soon. It took almost three months to complete the painting, sparing an hour each every day after my job and works at home,” she said.
She had also done portraits of Raju Narayana Swami and Victor George along with over 40 other paintings. Her next painting Pregnant Lady is in the offing.
Hailing from ‘Vazhavila Veedu’ at Karikuzhi in Kundara, Ms Sheeba has twin daughters Aleena S. Johnson and Adna S. Johnson, both ten years of age. Her husband is working as a sub-engineer with the KSEB Kundara, who also supports her in her passion.
