Date:03/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/03/stories/2007120360600200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Besotted with bulls

Staff Reporter

Giridhar Gowd’s obsession with the mighty beast began after a visit to the Ongole bull competition

Different strokes: Giridhar Gowd’s works on ‘Vrushabha’.

HYDERABAD: Rayana Giridhar Gowd, as an artist, has something in common with eminent British poet Ralph Hodgson. Whether it is acrylic on canvas, or dry pastels on paper, Mr. Gowd’s subject for the art work would be none other than the mighty beast that had ignited the poet’s imagination centuries ago.

This professional artist from Garuvupalem in Guntur district is never tired of painting the bull in a variety of forms and media. So far, he has to his credit about 80 to 90 depictions of the animal. “My fixation with the bull as a subject began when I happened to visit the ‘Ongole Bull Competitions’ at Atukuru in Krishna District. Symbolising energy, action, vigour and brightness, bull is a pictorially fulfilling subject,” Mr. Gowd said. Born in Gudavalli of Guntur district, Mr. Gowd went on to do his M.A. in Fine Arts from M.S. University in Vadodara. Later, he specialised in Mural Paintings from Banasthali Vidyapeeth in Rajasthan. Since then, he participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions apart from winning awards and scholarships.

Mr. Gowd revels in experimenting with the bovine form and spirit via various media such as acrylic, charcoal, water colours, Indian ink, and dry pastels. Notable among them is the way he creates a calf within the white space that shares its outline with the dewlap of a cow.

Though bull is his fetish, he does not mind a little digression to paint cows and calves.

Exhibition

His exhibition Vrishabha-1 will begin on December 28 at Kalahitha Art Gallery. Vrishabha-II which is on the anvil will have the depiction of his subjects in traditional miniatures of Moghul, Rajasthani, Pahadi and Deccani styles.