Creating Beautiful Strokes With Knife

Artist Satyanarayan at work.

With a number of art exhibitions being organised in the recent days in city, its citizens have been introduced to almost all types of paintings, ranging from abstract to traditional, contemporary to tribal and folk, etc. Each artist brings along a fresh style, a different theme and something new to share with the people. City artist Satyanarayan is also organising an exhibition of his work consisting of a very unique style of painting involving knife work.

Knife painting by Satyanarayan.

Speaking about his style, Satyanarayan said "The purpose of an artist’s work is that his work should not be reproduced in any other medium by others. This is expected from every artist. Hence I selected knife painting as it is almost impossible to replicate the work. The patterns you get with knife painting are very different from paint brush. With brushes you get a very smooth and soft finish. It's not the same with knife. Also such strokes cannot be done using computer and software. If you observe the paintings it is not easy to copy the shades and strokes done using knife. It has various colour dimensions. My paintings consist of just 30% brush work and 70% is done using knife and takes around two days to complete one painting."

Knife painting by artist Satyanarayan.

Born on 4th Oct, 1959, Satyanarayan started working full-time at Ratnam Arts in city when he was in 5th std. While he was working there many senior artists from CAVA and other institutions would visit the place. They constantly advised him to concentrate on painting academically also. When he was 14-years-old, Satyanarayan shifted to Bangalore and joined CM Ram Arts. He would make cinema banners and cut-outs and worked as an assistant to senior artists like C.V. Ambaji, Ramchandran, Narasimhan and others. It was they who introduced him to knife work. He has also worked at Mumbai, Kerala and Chennai and returned to Mysore in 2000.

Knife painting tools.

A resident of Vidyaranyapuram in city, Satyanarayan has participated in many group shows in Bangalore and conducted classes and demos for students there. Also, in one of his exhibitions held in city in 2002, he introduced a new form called digital art.

Portraits of former Mysore Mayor Sandesh Swamy.

Speaking about his upcoming expo, Satyanarayan said "In this exhibition I am concentrating on our culture and tradition. The paintings depict temples and our everyday chores, rural life and our customs."

Presently working at Art Media in Nazarbad in city, Satyanarayan has painted two life-like portraits of former Mayor Sandesh Swamy which look no less than an actual photograph. Apart from this, he has also painted portraits of poets which now adorn the walls in Kalamandira and an 8-ft portrait of Swami Vivekananda at Sadvidya Patashala way back in 1991.

Contact Satyanarayan on Mob: 9480477044.


(Published in Star of Mysore dated June 1, 2011)