Painted Prayers

When the globe is gradually becoming a hot pot with it’s

excessive warming and aridness. We can have a remedy

through worshiping the goddess for the global greening.

My paintings are non representational compositions. I

would like to convey emotions and expression through my

divine landscapes. The arcane force of this expression is

deeply felt by me. I used paint as a supplementary expression to

fulfill my urge of strengthening the philo-scapes.

I felt my paintings are prayers to the goddess of nature.

- Potelu Srinivasa Rao

Srinivasa Rao PoteluPh : 98850 22607

Date of Birth : 16th June 1975Education : B.F.A., Pursuing M.F.A.

Solo Exhibitions :

2010 at Travancore Art Gallery, New Delhi

2009 at A.U. Hall, Visakhapatnam

Important Group Exhibitions :

2011 at Lokayata Art Gallery, New Delhi

2010 at Visakha Museum, Visakhapatnam

2007 Workshop conducted by National Museum of Mankind, Bhopal, M.P.

2005 Group Exhibition conducted by Ministry of Culture at State Art Gallery, Hyderabad, A.P.

2004 Group Exhibition conducted by Visakha Art Society at Kshetra Art Gallery, Visakhapatnam

2004 Group Exhibition conducted by Municipal Corporation at Kailasagiri Art Gallery, Visakhapatnam

2004 Workshop conducted by Visakha Art Society, Visakhapatnam, A.P.

2004 Inaugural Exhibition of Visakha Art Society at Chitrangan Art Gallery, Visakhapatnam, A.P.

2003 National Workshop conducted by Adivasi Lok Kala Academy, Bhopal, M.P.

2000 Group Exhibition conducted by Dept. of Fine Arts, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, A.P.

1996 Group Exhibition conducted by Dept of Fine Arts Andhra University, Visakhapatnam

Works Collection

Neo-Soft Solutions, California, USAGangothri Constructions, Hyderabad, A.P.NTPC Simhadri, Visakhapatnam, A.P.Sreekrishna Silk Manufacturers, Dharmavaram, A.P.and more works in private collection in India and Abroad.

Painted Prayers

In the guiding light of the love-lamp of his heart, a young man embarked upon a journey into the

inviting mountain ranges with a sketch book and colors. He has been an avid worshiper of hills and forests

since his childhood days. He wandered lonely many times painting to his heart’s content. In the heavy

silence of his youthful yearnings, this young man roamed many places around his home town Palakonda, the

Northern part of Andhra Pradesh of South India.

There he observed the heaven-walds looking green trees with a particular eye. Quenching his thirst in

the flowing brooks, singing along with the running rivers, he intensely painted every thing as he marched

along. He loved the lush green trees above all and developed a fascination to paint green in a thousand

different hues. He rather found a green blooded goddess among the foliage.

Wandering there for a decade, this young man metamorphosed into a talented landscape painter and

he is no other that POTELU SRINIVASA RAO of Palakonda village.

The advancing greens and receding blues of his paintings originated from those wandering days. They

have a symbolism of their own. With the familiar palette or red, blue and green he achieved a dynamic balance

of color structures. All his works of this early period represented a curious visual phenomenon. By choosing

this kind of technique Srinivasarao held every element under great vibrating tension. All the paintings of this

early phase powered with maximum intensity. When he imbued brilliant patterns of light and shades into his

canvas he found himself satisfied.

Hailing from a place which is surrounded by thick forests and green hills, is the major reason for his

preference of abstract color combinations. Instead of searching for many colors in the white, he visualized

innumerable shades through the green only. The haziness and the mystery of his paintings is the result of his

repetitive answers to the querying by the wilderness.

After this first phase of semi nomadic wandering spells in the hills, Srinivasarao entered the threshold

of city life and tried his hand at inculcating his knowledge of colors to the school children. But the mechanical

surroundings and the non-aesthetic beings around him drove Srinivasarao to his earlier ozone-circle. Thanks

for the happening.

The native has successfully returned to his picturesque landscape with new projects in his mind. This

home coming helped him to move deep into the mountains. The grazing sheep amidst the green pastures

kindled his inner spirit to higher levels. The aroma of the mother earth proved more meaningful. The rustic

surroundings took him into it’s fold. The primeval elements silently signaled him many mysterious

messages. He owed to follow the wilderness forever and settled in a farmhouse. The fantastic views of the

mountain peaks solaced him. In these favourable surroundings Srinivasarao felt fulfillment of observing all

the wonders of nature. By traveling into the depths of the dense foliage, his visual language developed and his

heart filled with ineffable joy. Here began his pilgrimage into the realms color and his metaphysical intuition

has started.

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As his vision reached a state of perfection he found his ancestors roaming in the rustic surroundings

and valleys, playing their bamboo flutes beside their flocks of sheep. While he journeyed into the bosom of

forests and into the tranquility of ths hills, he heard the secrets of life in the silent prayers of the falling leaves.

Then he further heard the reverberating voices of his ancestors, who told him “we honour you for painting our

prayers, we love you for you are loving our foot falls”. This moment liberated Srinivasarao from all the

mundane bondage. His philosophical bent of mind changed him into a yogi and his divine love of nature

inspired his evolution. As he reached a state of spirituality like this, Srinivasarao gradually developed a direct

contact with the cosmic presence and his is deeply influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and Khalil-Zibran’s

philosophy.

The idea of creativity for Srinivasarao is a compulsory one. He loves everything that comes out form

the surrounding world. All these second phase paintings reveal his cravings and yearnings to abstract the

philosophic ideology. For that reason he resorted to the non-representational, non-figurative and non-

objective philosophy. Some times these multi layered oil and acrylic works appear as if blinking and change

into various patterns of life. The loops, swirls, ups and downs of the paint constructions point to the quivering

lip movements of a worshiper. In contrast to his early figurative works, these abstract paintings and mystical

diagrams focus our attention to the inner domain of the artist. It is a kind of self realization which led to his

spiritual development.

These self-stylistic manifestations are really suitable to be considered as symbolic mantras. With the

hope of expressing the transcendental ideas, Srinivasarao used the paint as a supplementary expression to

fulfill his urge of strengthening his Philo-scapes. Hence it became a colored music, where Srinivasa Rao

applied a personal system of abstracting the dreamy forms. It also helped to liberate the color form the form.

Though this type of color abstraction has been developed in the early years of twentieth century by the

European painters, Srinivasarao negotiated the abyss of color and developed this technic with his intuitive

power. He centers his theory of nature -meditation without depicting any form of figurative objects. Further

it is the idea of worshiping in the absence of the worshiper. His paintings helped for the awakening of the

consciousness.

All these paintings are non representational compositions, conveying emotionally the expressive

qualities of a divine landscape. The arcane force of this expression is deeply felt. By doing so he became an

exegetist of his subconscious. Some times there are a few suggestions of a water fall or a murmuring stream.

But we see every where the luxuriant forms of color-falls. Though there are a few adaptations of aggressive

approaches, they also fall under the characteristics of the pictorial images.

I congratulate him and wish him success in future endeavours on behalf of the artist friends and the

faculty of fine arts. Let all of these philo-scape paintings add their power for global greening and for the

welfare of the humanity and for the environmental awareness for the cause of the peace of the global-village.

“Let the singing stars and songs of the infinite be his guiding spirits forever in his attempts to paint his native wilderness”

Prof. M. AdinarayanaArt Historian

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