Charismatic Power of Lines and Dots
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
I got an opportunity through as the Young Reporter from Indians in Kuwait to meet Mr.Kondal Raj during the Exhibition which was held on 6th April to 13th 2012 at Dar El Cid Art Gallery. He spent with me around one hour, described about his childhood and his works how it was mold. He was born in Thenkashi, Tamil Nadu.to L. Shanmug Sundaram and Subbu Lakshmi. He married to Kalishwary and they are blessed with 2 Daughters.
In 1991 he wrote the Technical Examination at Thenkashi. He began his training under the illustrious artist, Sri. S.S. Manian who received Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Award. Kondal Raj was trained in the ‘Gurukul’ tradition ie. he is stayed with his master, capturing skills and techniques and perfecting his art. He had acquired training in different forms of art like Oil painting, Acrylic painting, Knife painting, Charcoal drawing, Collage works, etching, Portraits, Landscape, Seascape etc. He conducted his first solo exhibition in Coimbatore.
He had also conducted exhibitions in Indian Fine Arts Academy, Lalit Kala Academy, Vinyasa Art Gallery in Chennai and Victoria Technical Institute in Chennai. He conducted solo exhibitions in Dar El Cid Art Gallery in 2009 (nearly 3000 viewers were present for this exhibition), Parvati Art Gallery in Chennai in 2010 and Bliss Center 2011. He is specialized in Portraits. He has done innumerable portraits of many famous personalities. His favorite instruments are Charcoal and Pen.
His paintings were almost realistic. In the Exhibition, a picture of a flower was exhibited when we see the flower a bit far, it seems to be an ordinary flower, but when move back a meter we can realize water drops lining on the flower petals.
He captured the beauty of the nature as it is and reconstruct through his paintings and drawings e.g Forest, The lady with pot, The valley, Market, Early morning. Watch though his paintings I am really attracted the portrait of Great Mother Theresa who was the symbol of charity, that he used the media of Charcoal in black background.
Between our conversations Mr. Raj described about highly talented his fellow exhibiters from India and Kuwait. Some of them are G. Chandrasekaran, Maruthi, Maniam Selven, Marudu, N. Jamal, Nalini Mohan, Ramani Mathew, S.S. Karthik (Yaali), Muthuvappa and.Vadivelan,
Now, he’s been in Kuwait for the past 10 years. He is currently working in Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) as an artist and sign writer.
In every year Kondal Raj is teaching Art over 100 students and he is really doing a social service especially Indian and also for Kuwaiti community here.
During a brief conversation with Mr. Kondal Raj, he said “ Drawing and painting is very common among people and many have interests to it. Artists always have a commitment towards nature. Thus there won’t be any differences between them. Artists do not bother about discriminations in the society; he paints whatever comes to his mind and tries to express his feelings”
It was a highly viewed exhibition. During the inaugural ceremony Mr. Kondal Raj drew the caricature of Sri. Satish C. Mehta, Indian Ambassador o Kuwait. Surprisingly, he drew a caricature of mine and gifted it to me. He took just 8 minutes to complete the caricature.
It was a unique experience for me.
It was really a miraculous experience for me. It was the first time, I had been visiting an exhibition. I got a wonderful opportunity to spend some valuable moments with such an amazing artist. I take this opportunity to wish Mr. Kondal Raj for successful many years.
s