India-Oman relations on canvas

Thiruvananthapuram: India and Oman have a long history of friendly relations. A series of 30 paintings done by a Melbourne-based Malayali on the cultural and political exchanges was exhibited at the Indian embassy in Muscat as part of  the 47th Glorious National Day of Oman from November 7 to 13. The exhibition of Indian and Omani portraits and paintings was organised by the Omani Society for Fine Arts. Sedunath Prabhakar  from Kottayam said that India and Oman are linked by geography, history and culture and have historical maritime trade links.

The Indian community has played a great role in the building up of Oman. His paintings were mainly based on the visits of President Shankar Dayal Sharma to Oman in 1996, vice-president  Krishna Kant in 1999, Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1993,  Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1998, Dr Manmohan Singh in 2008 and Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s visit to India in 1997. The maritime trade and cultural exchanges over 5,000 years between the countries have led to the mixing of cultural traditions that are reflected in their crafts, textiles, cuisine and customs. The  paintings showed their common features, said Mr Prabhakar.

 

He had begun his career with paintings of landscapes mainly using water colours, but later  experimented with oil colours. He held his first solo exhibition at Chithram Art gallery in Kerala in 2001. In 2015, he did a solo exhibition in Australia, which featured 50 eminent Australians on a 50-metre canvas. This took 1.5 years to complete. From 1998 to 2003 he depicted the history of Jain religion and culture in the famous Jain temples across Gujarat. He is a recipient of ‘Hemaprabhu guru’ awarded by Gujarat state Jain senate. Currently, he runs the Kalakshetra Art and Music School, Melb-ourne.