Artist C. Balasubramani with his works in Madurai. | Photo Credit: G. Moorthy

Under the shadow of Yanamalai and living in a quiet bylane at Othakadai, C. Balasubramani’s world is filled with men and women in a languorous state but with unfathomable eyes that tell a million tales.

This 69-year-old artist bagged the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society award for his entry, ‘Listen what he has to say’ (an oil sketch), at the annual All India Art Exhibition 2022 held in New Delhi recently.

Mr. Balasubramani honed his skills at the Chennai College of Arts and also worked as a textile designer for Garden Mills. Bronze sculpture had fascinated him and a woman’s bust with striking long earlobes heavy with jewellery stands testimony to this.

He could not resist the call of the tinsel world and he has worked as an art director for ‘Jeans’ and also wrote the screenplay for Vijaykanth starrer ‘Neeranja Manasu’. 

Now, he is known for his contemporary figurative paintings that are marked by brush strokes that are soft and giving depth to human figures by drawing mundane objects revealing a still-life in the background. Like his inspiration Rabindranath Tagore, the human face is a common theme running in all his drawings.

An experimentalist, of late the drilling machine has become a brush in his hand and he uses it as a tool to create images on wood.

From 2007 to 2010, he was awarded a three-year fellowship by the Ministry of Culture and that helped him to showcase his work. Later, he was invited to hold a month-long show at Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery. 

Recently, he sold one of his work for ₹ 2 lakh and as an empty canvas comes to life, he says that he feels happy when those buying his art say that these paintings talk to them.

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Printable version | May 16, 2022 9:03:14 pm | https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/madurai/article65397834.ece