Colonel-turned-painter donates works to gallery

KOZHIKODE: Retired, but not tired. That is the motto Colonel (Rtd) V.P.K. Nair of Neyyattinkara, Thiruvananthapuram, is trying to promote when he started painting after completing 34 years of service in the Indian Army and Air Force (IAF). Promoting education through Yoga, Col. Nair was already in the news. Now, he has donated 19 of his paintings to the Chombala Art Gallery under Vadakara block panchayat. Block panchayat president Kottayil Radhakrishnan honoured Col. Nair before taking over the works at the latter’s house, ‘Saraswathi Vilasam’.

He has set up a gallery at his Neyyattinkara home and called it ‘Atma Arts’. He remembers how he met top leaders and VIPs during his tenure in the IAF and presented the then defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon with his portrait. “It was in 1962 that Mr Menon signed on the work and I still cherish that memory,” he says. Though started with pencil sketches, he uses mediums like watercolour, oil and acrylic now. After hanging up his uniform for the last time in 1989, he found that retirement was “really, the beginning of life."

"I wanted to do things on my own, without any bosses. We come to the world alone and leave alone, so, thought of making the life here more meaningful, turning it spiritually significant. I am retired, but not tired.” The paintings he donated include 15 from his Ramayana series. He has also made paintings on the 32 stanzas of Bhajagovindam by Sankaracharya. Col. Nair has already held five solo exhibitions in Thiruvananthapuram till date, and he is looking forward to one in Kozhikode, once his paintings reach here. The gallery, after renovation, would be open to the public on Monday and he looks forward to visiting the gallery soon.