A versatile artist and a pioneer of the modern art movement in South India, Velu. Viswanathan, was born in Kollam, Kerala in the year 1940. He innovated with styles, sometimes mixing watercolors and oils, as a result of which the transparency of one medium blends into the opacity of the other. In his work done in the 1970s, he even used gold and silver colors. His early work was figurative. He later evolved to experiment with abstract and geometric forms. Inspired by geometrical ritualistic-magical diagrams of his native Kerala, he explored the visual language inherent in them with a gradual evolution of form and color. Velu Viswanathan draws with a particularly arresting technique. The outline is drawn with thick stamping ink, and then oil paint is applied with a brush and the work washed with turpentine.
Velu Viswanathan draws with a particularly arresting technique. The outline is drawn with thick stamping ink, and then oil paint is applied with a brush and the work washed with turpentine.
