Exhibition of Kavi Kale Art by Veena Shrinivas opened at Prasad Art Gallery

Exhibition of Kavi Kale Art by Veena Shrinivas opened at Prasad Art Gallery

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Dec 5, 2011: ‘Glimpses’ an exhibition of  Kavi Kale Art by Veena Shrinivas opened at Prasad Art Gallery today evening. Parvadhavardhini Gopalkrishnan, Principal of WelcomeGroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration,  Manipal inaugurated the exhibition.

Dr Mohan Alva, chairman of Alva’s Education Foundation, Dr Mukund Prabhu of Mangalore University, M R Pavanje, the mentor of Veena Srinivas and others were  present.

 

 

 

 

Veena Shrinivas has achieved the heights of success in Kavi Kale, an ancient art of putting water colors on paper, a traditionally male-dominated field. Her beautiful paintings are now displayed on the walls of posh offices and houses across the globe. 

Traditionally, Kavi Kale paintings are seen on the walls of old temples in Goa and Karnataka. The art is believed to have originated in Goa and later brought to coastal Karnataka in the sixteenth century. Ms. Shrinivas is focusing on reviving this art through water colors. She speaks of her interest in motivating young artists to develop an interest in Kavi Kale, which is rapidly disappearing owing to temple renovations. 

However, a few temples in coastal Karnataka are going out of their way to preserve the art. The murals are reddish-brown in color against a backdrop of white sandblast and represent three-dimensional images of gods and goddesses. 

Speaking about Kavi Kale, the artist said that characters from popular Indian epics and myths feature on temple walls, created with ura manju, a mix of red or maroon earth pigments, which is not only eco-friendly, but also appealing to the viewers. These murals are not even destroyed by heavy rains, she says. 

Ms. Shrinivas said that she was fascinated with the lovely murals at Mahalasa Narayani Temple in Kumta, after which she decided to make it the theme of her own work. She has already created 12 such water color paintings, taking nearly 2 years to create paintings illustrating the Dashavathara, Laksminarasimha, Lakshminarayana, Garuda, Hanuman, and other gods seen on the walls of the temple. 

The artist, who has already participated in 14 group expos and many oneman shows has an exhibition of  her paintings on ’Kavi Kale’ at Prasad Gallery from 5th to 9th Decenber 2011.