Chennaiite can replicate anything on canvas

Chennai: For A Paneer Selvam (53) art is his soul. This resident of Porur in the city is known for his portraits and oil paintings.

He can draw the exact replica of a person from a photograph. The artist has drawn a number of cinema personalities.

One of his paintings is of actor Sivakumar, who is an artist himself. Paneer Selvam is currently holding his solo exhibition at Lalit Kala Akademi.

In an interaction with ‘News Today’, Paneer Selvam said,”My father is a great artist. So, painting came to me naturally. He is also my mentor. I learnt a lot of painting techniques from him.”

Paneer Selvam has worked as a cartoonist with Chanda Mama group. Later he worked with magazines such as Bommai and Mangaiyar. After his retirement, he has devoted all his time for his passion. He recalled his interaction with actor Sivakumar.

“The actor loved my work after he saw it. He praised and appreciated me for the effort. He also said it looked exactly like him.”

In addition, Paneer Selvam is also an expert in 3D paintings. His canvas on horses, bull fighting and other natural scenes are lively and attractive. In each of his works, he has used bright and bold colours to bring out the emotion of the animals and himself.

Paneer Selvam has been updating himself on a daily basis. He also does digital art, which is the latest trend. “As time passed, I moved into digital art. I learnt it by seeing online videos. After lots of practice, now I can work on all the software used in digital designing such as Photoshop, Lightroom, etc,” he added.

Talking about the participation of youngsters in this field, he said,”Art and artists are unsung. Many do not opt to venture into this field nor do they show interest in picking up paintings. More awareness should be created about art.”

Paneer Selvam can be reached at 9841540213.

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“I have done several solo and group exhibitions. People’s love for art has reduced gradually over a period of time. Digital art has taken over real ones and anyone who has the software can now design whatever they want. The younger generation is not ready to spend money on art.”