Damayanti comes alive on Rajiv canvas

Thiruvananthapuram: Painter Rajiv Peethambaran,31, from Edapally in Kochi,  had a memorable day last Friday when he handed over a five-and-a-half-feet-high oil painting on canvas of Hamsa Damayanti, the famed painting originally done by Raja Ravi Varma, to his descendant. The painting was transported here   and handed over to K. Ravi, the great grandson of Raja Ravi Varma. 

Rajiv, who doesn’t have any formal training in painting, has been a committed artist. Originally from Cherthala in Alappuzha district, Rajiv joined for BA political science in his home town. But his heart was in painting and he decided to pursue web designing course.

After six years of work in a Malayalam television channel, Rajiv  plunged into full-time painting. It was a 10-day solo painting exhibition at Lalitakala Academy Art Gallery in Ernakulam which proved to be a turning point in his life.

“During the fag end of my exhibition, I got a call from K. Ravi asking me to reproduce the work of Hamsa Damayanti. I immediately visited Sree Chitra Art Gallery at the Thiruvananthapuram Museum and studied the great painter’s work in close detail,”   Rajiv told DC.

It took him almost one month to finish the 5.5” and 3.5”  oil painting on canvas. Ravi, who had retired as an engineer from Bharat Earth Movers Limited in Bengaluru,  wanted to have a masterpiece of his great grandfather’s work to adorn the walls of his recently furnished flat at Thampuranmukku in the city.

“None of my family members had the works of Raja Ravi Varma. I always wanted to have a huge canvas of Hamsa Damayanti and when I came across Rajiv’s works on the internet, I approached him. Now after seeing the painting, I am hugely impressed with Rajiv’s work,”  Ravi told DC.

Rajiv is on another mission now  to have his exhibition at Chitrakala Parishad in Bengaluru under the aegis of Karnataka Government during April.