Gond artist Venkat Shyam stresses on the need to protect our environment | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Gond artist Venkat Shyam stresses on the need to protect our environment | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Vandana Kalra |Updated: April 30, 2019 6:20:21 am

Gond artist Venkat Shyam stresses on the need to protect our environment

To initiate a “reconciliation” between human beings and nature and draw attention to environmental degradation, the artist has turned to stories of thick forests and pure water that he was told as a child.

Tulsi Vivah

Growing up in Sijhora village in Madhya Pradesh, artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam recalls being fascinated by stories of the Pradhan Gond, a sub clan of the adivasi community in central India. He was only six when his mother introduced him to paintings of his maternal uncle Jawahar Lal Uikey. “My mother believed that I was his reincarnation and was destined to become an artist,” recalls Shyam. Though he decided to pursue art almost a decade later, even as a child he carefully studied the nuances of paintings on the village walls, to replicate them with charcoal in his own home. The depictions would range from animals to the flora and fauna he saw around. “My father did not want me to become an artist but friends would appreciate my work,” says Shyam, 48.