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        A wonderful world of pleasant, rustic scenes, a variety of faces, flowers in watercolours and idle boats afloat calm seas. These dominate G Manohar Raja's canvass at the exclusive exhibition in the newly- opened Covenant Point Art Gallery on Second Avenue, Anna Nagar, Chennai. The exhibition was inaugurated on 26 January by Chief Commissioner of Income Tax A Selvaraj. It would be on till 11 February.
 

G Manohar Raja with his paintings

        News Today met him and he spoke about the importance of his works.

        Speaking about his background, Raja said, 'I consider my father R Govindaraj as my guru. He was well known in the painters' circle for his watercolours and had made a mark at the national- level. After my education, I worked as a chief designer in Rayalseema Paper Mills. During that time, I held my first solo art show in 1992 at Chola Sheraton. On the second day of the exhibition, a businessman from Delhi bought all the paintings. From then, there was no looking back. I resigned my job and took up painting full time'. He had since conducted 26 exhibitions in cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and at his hometown, Chennai. This is his 27th exhibition.

        He paints with acrylic, oil and watercolours. To enhance the three-dimensional effect of his acrylic and oil paintings, he uses a palette knife and mixes sand with the colours.

        Although the palette knife is not a great tool for either the elegant artist or commercial artist, it is great for the artist wishing to inject extra emotion into their work. Whereas a brush needs a degree of control and restraint to create subtle lines, the knife allows the artist to physically press the paint hard into the canvas, and then mash it around with the full strength of their shoulder in order to produce a kind of emotional storm. While the final product may be rough in texture and blotchy in colour, such characteristics can convey a wide variety of emotions.

        He tries to capture moments that inspire happiness and contentment on his canvas like lotus-filled ponds in which women wash clothes at one end and take water from the other, small temples on hillocks and bullock carts going down muddy roads on a misty morning. If you find time, visit the gallery and you would surely say, 'What a wonderful world'. G Manohar Raja resides at Gujji Naickan Street, Anna Nagar East. He can be contacted at 98405 53469.