As a self-taught artist, Yusuf Madhiya says there have been days when he made so many drafts that he ultimately discarded and stopped counting them altogether.
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association
When a 50-year-old resident of Chennai Yusuf Madhiya went to the wildlife sanctuary as a toddler, he would return dwelling and instantly begin sketching tigers and elephants. Everybody round him thought he would ultimately develop right into a wildlife artist, however life nudged him in direction of entrepreneurship as a substitute.
Mr. Madhiya now spends most of his day managing his enterprise, principally surrounded by cloth and residential furnishing supplies for many years. However the inventive facet of him by no means actually went away. He says it actually didn’t let him sleep. Through the years with assiduous apply, he has created practically 2,500 work documenting the heritage of South India, which have now turn into books. His portray was exhibited with The Madras Artwork Weekend at Lalit Kala Akademi, Dakshina Chitra and plenty of galleries of Chennai.
“After all of the work at my retailer which has every little thing to do with cloth, I needed to return to my creativity,” says Mr. Madhiya. “And from wildlife drawings, I slowly began wanting on the heritage of South India once I picked the comb with my good friend and artist’s affect Balanchander,” he says. There was one more reason he discovered himself portray by means of the evening. When his father fell ailing years in the past, Mr. Madhiya needed to keep awake to test on him and that interstitial stretch of time additionally grew to become portray hours.
The artist says his early years as an engineer taught him the right way to adapt and preserve trying new issues.
As a self-taught artist, he says there have been days when he made so many drafts that he ultimately discarded and stopped counting them altogether. “Being a part of the City Sketchers Chennai chapter was how I began practising the landmarks of the town with dwell sketches, together with Chennai Central, Anderson Church, Fort Geldria, Freemason’s corridor and so forth,” says he, including how the structure of Chennai’s landmarks consists of a variety of straight strains and views.
Amongst all of the works he has painted, the massive temple of Thanjavur – the Brihadeeswara temple is certainly one of his favourites.
One lesson from his early years as an engineer, he provides, was studying the right way to adapt and preserve trying new issues. That was when Mr. Madhiya felt portray Chennai’s heritage alone didn’t really feel sufficient, he needed to contribute to one thing extra accessible. This led him to jot down Discovering Chennai’s Heritageand later went on as an example UNESCO World Heritage Websites in India in two volumes and is presently drawing the historic architectural monuments of South India known as Stone Tales: Heritage of South India. “With my full-time furnishing enterprise taking over most of my day, I may solely paint both very early within the morning or late at evening,” says the artist-entrepreneur. “Earlier, if I began a portray at evening, I might stay awake till it was completed however now, I attempt to not rush by means of it,” he provides, who solely makes use of tempera colors and linen artwork board.
Amongst all of the works he has painted, the massive temple of Thanjavur – the Brihadeeswara temple is certainly one of his favourites. “As an artist, you think about one factor and the ultimate end result turns into one thing else solely, however this was the portray which got here alive the best way I envisioned it,” provides he.
When requested if he prefers protecting his occupation and fervour separate, Mr. Madhiya says in reality, it was artwork that expanded his enterprise world. “At lots of my exhibitions, folks would ask what I do full-time, and funnily sufficient, I ended up getting furnishing purchasers by means of my artwork exhibits itself.”
Revealed – Might 26, 2026 11:56 pm IST
