Her strokes on canvas are bold, confident, and the colours she uses to express the situation are earthy and evocative. Archana Karunakaran, a dentist by training, has devoted her spare time to express her creativity on canvas. She uses all media – pen, acrylic, water colours, and splashes in some rum too. The last one, to bring about the natural colours of people that she depicts, she adds.
Dr. Archana graduated from Ragas Dental College in 2005 and completed PG from Government Dental College Chennai as a merit student in 2009. “I figured out earlier that I am good with my hands. In dentistry you work with your hands always. I began to seriously paint when I got a six-month break after completing PG. I landed a lecturer job in Sri Ramachandra University, and I worked there for a year. That is when I got back to art as I had some time. Studying is more rigorous than working,” recalled the periodontist.
Most of the work exhibited at C.P. Art Centre is from 2022 onwards. She has exhibited about 30 paintings that she did after 2022 and the rest are from earlier years, she said. The lockdown period was a catalyst as the clinic was shut and she used the time to experiment with different media. This is her second exhibition post-COVID. Since she works from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the clinic, she paints three-four hours every morning, she said.
Her human sketches are inspired by her visit to her mother’s village, Anamalai. Some paintings have taken her four months to complete, she revealed.
The centrepiece is a painting of Nataraja and the various mythologial stories – sati, Markandeyan, Manmadan and Rati- surrounding it.
The exhibition is on at C.P. Art Centre’s Shakunthala Art Gallery till Sunday.
Published - February 08, 2024 11:23 pm IST
