Portrait of a of many parts

KOCHI: Painting, photography and sculpturing go hand in hand for artist Santu Brahma. A native of Thrissur, Santu brings to life dance, music and expressions through his work. Santu, who had an interest in painting from his childhood, concentrates on dance forms and portraits in his works. “The cosmic dance of Shiva was one of my recent works, which was well received. I have also used my brushes for painting different portraits,” he said. Santu recollected his experience of painting a portrait of the Travancore King Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma for a client in Mumbai. “I pictured the legend in a singing form, which I believe no other artist has tried before,” he said.

Santu mentioned that he had talked to Prince Rama Varma, a descendant of Swathi Thirunal before doing the work and showed him the sketch for approval. A student of the College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, he works mostly in oil and charcoal. He mentioned that he is also into making sculptures of idols of God, which he contributes to temples. He learnt the art form from ace sculptor Mohanraj Sthapathy in Thanjavoor. 

His other passion is photography. “ I like capturing the movements in classical dance like  Kathakali. I am also into landscape and wildlife photography,” he said. Unlike his other skills,   he is not trained in photography. He has no interest in sending the pictures to any competition or to use it commercially. “If I want to capture a moment, I go for events and fulfil my passion. Initially, I used an ordinary camera but now I have switched to a DSLR,” he added.

Whether in photography, sculpturing or painting, he emphasises that the work should convey an emotion and should strongly portray the expression of the subject. The artist is currently working on a life-size portrait of the late scholar Poomully Aramthampuran. Santu said that Facebook is where he promotes his works and helps him to get maximum enquiries. He expects to put up an exhibition of all his works by the end of the year.