Thota Vaikuntam Portrait Paintings

Thota Vaikuntam - Telengana Pandit Acrylic on Canvas, 23 x 17.75 inches Thota Vaikuntam is one of the Greatest Artist from the Indian Sub-contitent. He is preoccupied with portraying the men and woman from his region. Thota Vaikuntam (born 1942) is an Indian Modern painter.His paintings capture simple lifestyle of villagers like the paddy fields, toddy pots on shoulders of men, the household chores, temple rituals etc. His drawings range from stark charcoal on paper, transparent washes and pencil drawings. Vaikuntam paints colorful and elaborately dressed Telangana region men and seductive women. His muse is the sensuous and voluptuous women of Telangana with their omnipresent vermilion bindis, draped in colourful sarees that highlight their dusky skin. The stylisation of a painting are a perfect foil to Indian classical dance as the figures seem to dance, as if following their creator in a statuesque movement, reminiscent of temple friezes. He uses the brightest of reds and yellows. The simple women become larger than life as they fill the small format of his paintings draped in bright Sircilla saris. "I like using rich primary colours, which give a sense of character and depth to my paintings. Like reds and saffron and even orange, because these are essentially Indian colours. I don't like using colours that are mix of two, because they are not natural, they don't exist in surroundings around us, in our everyday life. - T. Vaikuntam” Style : Men and women of his village are often the central characters of his work. The obsession can be traced back to his childhood, when he used to be fascinated by the male artists who used to impersonate female characters in the travelling theatre groups that performed in his village. He admits finding the women of his village very sensuous and that he only attempts to capture their vibrancy. Vaikuntam’s art has a sense of strength to it, a power that emanates from the paint or charcoal that he applies to the surface, from his controlled lines, and from the fine strokes that he executes. He generally uses only primary colours, as he believes that composite colours do not exist in nature and are therefore, unnatural. About the Artist : Born : 1942 in Boorugupali, Andhra Pradesh. Education : 1970 - T. Vaikuntam completed a Diploma in Painting at the College of Fine Arts and Architecture, Hyderabad. 1972 - Painting and Printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. Solo Exhibition : 1973 - He held his first solo exhibition at the Kala Bhavan in Hyderabad and since then has had regular shows...