KOLLAM: This 70-year-old artist, who has completed over 10,500 portraits in his lifetime, is on an endless wait to get his dream come true – an art school ‘Kalakshetra’ to teach the younger generation the art of portrait painting. Artist Radhakrishnan Pillai, who has made prominent personalities from several walks of life immortal, is engaged in teaching children the art of painting free of cost. The government had funded ‘Kalakshetra’ building in Kundara on the land donated by the revenue department back in 2008.
“I have received several funds from people's representatives and the government to complete the works. However, the works are yet to complete. I expect Kalakshetra or the temple for art will help the coming generations,” he says. The first portrait of a politician he did was of P.K. Vasudevan Nair at the MLA Hostel. His pictures were widely accepted, and it gave him an almost permanent space there as a sketch artist of almost all the politicians who had visited the capital city.
He has also received accolades from eminent personalities including Indira Gandhi and APJ Abdul Kalam. Mr Radhakrishnan was born on August 15, 1947, on the very day the country became free. He learned preliminary lessons under the renowned artist Medayil Unnithan and started painting portraits at the age of 10 with the picture of V. Sambasivan. The friendship with actor Satyan made him get a job at the Udaya Studio in Alappuzha to draw illustrations for cinema posters. He had also worked with KSFDC to design movie titles.
A bachelor, he is an advocate of real images, and one could not find anything imaginary in his paintings. He claims that he had never painted with a motive of making money. “But still I have been given rewards by several personalities. V.S. Achuthanandan, Prem Nazir, K. Karunakaran and Ramesh Chennithala are those helped me a lot, to name a few,” he adds.
