Every painting has a beginning. Some begin with something we see. Some begin with something we experience. And some begin with a story someone tells us. My painting of Bichali Rayar and Appanacharya began that way.
How the Bichali Painting Began
In 2005, conversations with my friend Devadass and something Savithri Amma had shared inspired me to create this painting. At that time, I had never been to Bichali. I had never stood in the place I was trying to portray. Yet the subject stayed in my mind. I wanted to bring the story into a visual form. So I began working on the painting.
From a Line Drawing to a Coloured Painting
I first started with a simple line drawing. I worked on the forms and details slowly. Once the drawing was ready, I began adding colour. Little by little, the simple sketch became a complete painting. For me, this was not simply about creating an image. I was trying to give visual form to something I had heard and felt connected to. Once the painting was finished, I kept it with me. I had no idea where it would eventually take me.
Painting a Place I Had Never Visited
There was something unusual about this painting. I had created a picture of Bichali without actually visiting Bichali. As an artist, this made me think about how we create. An artist doesn’t always work only from what the eyes have seen. Sometimes we work from memories. Sometimes from stories. Sometimes from conversations. And sometimes from the emotions those stories create inside us. That was my experience with this painting.
The Painting Finds Its First Opportunity
The painting remained with me until one day in Triplicane.I had gone to a mutt carrying a Brindavanam painting, hoping to sell it. Opposite the mutt was a shop ‘Amman Pathipagam’. There, Amman Sathyanathan saw my work. He became interested in my paintings and wanted one for the cover of his book. While looking through my work, he also noticed the Bichali painting. He asked about it. Then he said that it would be suitable for a chapter inside the book. I gave him the painting. I didn’t know then that this would become an important turning point.
When the Bichali Painting Started Travelling
After that, the painting began to move from one person to another. It reached people connected to the story behind Bichali and Appanacharya. At the Triplicane mutt, I met Ramachar, connected with the lineage of Appanacharya and Bichali. When he saw the painting, he embraced me and asked how I had created it. That moment gave the painting a completely different meaning for me. It was no longer just my interpretation of a story. It had reached someone connected to that tradition.
When Art Becomes a Connection
This is what I love about art. We may create a painting alone. But once it leaves our hands, we don’t control its journey. It can connect people, open conversations, carry a story from one person to another. My Bichali painting did exactly that. What started with a conversation with Devadass and Savithri Amma eventually connected me with Amman Sathyanathan, Ramachar and, later, Shri.A.M.Rajagopalan.
The Journey Was Only Beginning
At the time I created the painting, I had no idea that it would eventually reach a Kumudham publication. I could not have imagined the people I would meet because of it. I certainly could not have imagined how this painting would connect a rejection from my past with an opportunity in the future.But that is the story of this painting. It began as a sketch.It became a painting. And then, unexpectedly, it became a connection. The next part of the story begins with the person who first saw this painting in Triplicane – Amman Sathyanathan.
