His world of cubes, colours and images
His world of cubes, colours and images
· Shetty lost his speech and hearing at the age of five — when he was already into sketching and painting
· He keeps his subjects simple enough for most viewers to understand
"They are mostly cubes of colour, assembled into forms and images that suddenly come to my mind," artist Ganesh Shetty tells Raghava M.
THIS HEARING and speech impaired artist could carry on a fairly long conversation with his hero, Sachin Tendulkar. It was a chance that Ganesh Shetty took to meet his favourite cricketer.
Shetty (32) permitted by the authorities of Karnataka State Cricket Association to meet the cricketers. After waiting for a while Tendulkar approached him. "I just handed him my painting of Lord Ganesha depicted in cubes of colour. I explained to him the uniqueness of my art in sign language, which Tendulkar understood well," said Shetty.
This is how Shetty explains in signs about his experience of meeting Tendulkar. "I wanted to gift one of my paintings to my hero. I waited till the team's practice session was over and Sachin was going to his room... I stopped him and began explaining in sign language about my work which symbolised Ganesha, the religious symbols surrounding the deity, and the abstract cubes."
Shetty lost his speech and hearing at the age of five following a bout of severe fever which went undiagnosed. Born in a village near Udupi, he was already into sketching and painting and was encouraged by his parents to continue. Shetty's talents received wider exposure in 1989 when his works were exhibited he won an award in the Bala Kala contest sponsored by UNICEF in Bangalore. He stayed at the Institute for the Deaf near HAL. Since then he has been steadily painting as a professional artist.
About his approach to art, Shetty explains "They are mostly cubes of colour, assembled into forms and images that suddenly come to my mind. They may look abstract but are lucid enough for most people to understand. The brush work is almost invisible and I tend to use more fluorescent colours. In some of my paintings you can see more than one image."
An example is his work, meditating Buddha. The background and the foreground reveal the image of a person in deep thought, and plants, birds and a lotus in bloom and other symbols. ``You can view my paintings from different angles and make out various images, if you want to.'' Shetty perfected his style after completing his diploma in fine arts from a private institution in Bangalore. He was exposed to the works of Picasso and was struck by the great artist's combination of colours. But Shetty himself keeps his subjects simple enough for most viewers to understand without being too abstract