Ginne Venkateswarlu, who is known to draw paintings under the pen-name ‘Sagar’, has paid an artistic tribute to Sri Ramanujacharya by painting the saint in dots, as the 13-day programme to inaugurate his mammoth statue in the name of ‘Statue of Equality’ at Muchintal near Hyderabad begins.
A faculty of art at Sri Venkateswara Institute of Traditional Sculpture and Architecture (SVITSA) run by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, Tirupati, Dr. Venkateswarlu has drawn hundreds of images by using pointillism in a span of over 20 years.
Pointillism is a technique of applying small and thick dots in a pattern, sometimes in varying colours, so as to arrive at a whole image. He has named his art form as ‘The voice of Palamoor dots’, as he hails from Mahabubnagar district.
As part of the programme marking the inauguration of the ‘Statue of Equality’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the organisers have allocated a stall to the TTD, under which Dr. Venkateswarlu has set up his gallery. Apart from Sri Ramanuja, he has displayed several images on Lord Venkateswara, Chinna Jeeyar etc. at the gallery.
“I have used seven colours of ball pen refills for this art, with yellow, brown and yellow ochre predominantly for the statue, since it is made of gold, and the rest for the background,” says Dr. Venkateswarlu., who took 15 days to complete the work. The portrait, measuring 3.5 ft x 2.5 ft, is already attracting eyeballs at the huge stall, which also has an impressive photo gallery by the TTD’s public relations department.