Canvas to India

KOCHI: Anish K G lives what most of us would call a dream life. This 39-year-old, who hails from South Pampady near Kottayam is a painter, employed as a senior animator with the Polish gaming company ‘People Can Fly’. Though he has been painting since school days, Anish never prioritised his career as an artist. “For my graduation, I studied chemistry. Painting was sidelined during that time. While I was working with K R Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts, I drew a portrait of K R Narayanan with charcoal on paper, that is still on display in the office room,” Anish recollects his brief confrontation with the artistic side through the years. 
 

After he studied animation and worked in Bengaluru briefly, he was hired by ‘People can fly’, a company that crafts AAA games, including GTA. For two years, he was busy working on a new third-person shooter game called Outsiders, that is expected to hit the market in September 2020. But now, Anish has a big responsibility on his shoulder—of opening up India’s gems in front of a few of the most influential diplomats in the world. On January 26, the Republic Day of India, an exhibition on his paintings named ‘India—A palette of colours and pictures’ were held on behalf of the Indian Embassy to Poland and Lithuania. Many Ambassadors and diplomats from other embassies in Poland attended the event that was organised by the Indian embassy exclusively for their guests.

For Anish who has never conducted an exhibition of this magnitude in his life, the opportunity was a stroke of serendipity. In 2018, he visited the Embassy during Independence Day celebrations and noticed that many high profile guests who await the flag hoisting could be educated about India and its culture. “I spoke to the officers, and they asked me to bring samples. So I bought around 20 canvases and litres of paint with my own money, and started making paintings about India in the beginning of 2019,” he says.
It was indeed a huge risk, but the frames were approved by the embassy and the series was displayed this year.

The deep colours of Pushkar festival, the vibrancy of Giddha dance, lamps lining up Diwali celebrations, Taj Mahal and tuk-tuks are all part of Abish’s Indian narrative. His childhood in Kerala is also reflected on canvas—with chendamelam, Kathakali and Theyyam being central attractions. “The guests were quite curious—they wanted to know the whereabouts of each painting. It was a great feeling to be introducing my country in front of the world,” he says. The list of invitees for Anish’s show included Polish celebrity Małgorzata Pieczyńska,  Tsewang Namgyal, the ambassador of India to Poland, and Wieslaw Stypula, member of the Association of Poles who lived in India under the care of Maharaja Jama Digvijaysinhaji Saheb after World War II.

Anish K G, hailing from South Pampady near Kottayam, is now taking international diplomats on a tour of Indian culture through his paintings