Painted Prayers

When the globe is gradually becoming a hot pot with its excessive warming and aridness. We can have a remedy through worshiping the goddess for the global greening. My paintings are non representational compositions. I would like to convey emotions and expression through my divine landscapes. The arcane force of this expression is deeply felt by me. I used paint as a supplementary expression to fulfill my urge of strengthening the philo-scapes. I felt my paintings are prayers to the goddess of nature.

- Potelu Srinivasa Rao

Srinivasa Rao Potelu

Ph : 98850 22607
Date of Birth : 16th June 1975 Education : B.F.A., Pursuing M.F.A.

Solo Exhibitions :
2010 at Travancore Art Gallery, New Delhi 2009 at A.U. Hall, Visakhapatnam

Important Group Exhibitions :

2011 at Lokayata Art Gallery, New Delhi 2010 at Visakha Museum, Visakhapatnam 2007 Workshop conducted by National Museum of Mankind, Bhopal, M.P. 2005 Group Exhibition conducted by Ministry of Culture at State Art Gallery, Hyderabad, A.P. 2004 Group Exhibition conducted by Visakha Art Society at Kshetra Art Gallery, Visakhapatnam 2004 Group Exhibition conducted by Municipal Corporation at Kailasagiri Art Gallery, Visakhapatnam 2004 Workshop conducted by Visakha Art Society, Visakhapatnam, A.P. 2004 Inaugural Exhibition of Visakha Art Society at Chitrangan Art Gallery, Visakhapatnam, A.P. 2003 National Workshop conducted by Adivasi Lok Kala Academy, Bhopal, M.P. 2000 Group Exhibition conducted by Dept. of Fine Arts, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, A.P. 1996 Group Exhibition conducted by Dept of Fine Arts Andhra University, Visakhapatnam

Works Collection
Neo-Soft Solutions, California, USA Gangothri Constructions, Hyderabad, A.P. NTPC Simhadri, Visakhapatnam, A.P. Sreekrishna Silk Manufacturers, Dharmavaram, A.P. and more works in private collection in India and Abroad.

Painted Prayers
In the guiding light of the love-lamp of his heart, a young man embarked upon a journey into the inviting mountain ranges with a sketch book and colors. He has been an avid worshiper of hills and forests since his childhood days. He wandered lonely many times painting to his hearts content. In the heavy silence of his youthful yearnings, this young man roamed many places around his home town Palakonda, the Northern part of Andhra Pradesh of South India. There he observed the heaven-walds looking green trees with a particular eye. Quenching his thirst in the flowing brooks, singing along with the running rivers, he intensely painted every thing as he marched along. He loved the lush green trees above all and developed a fascination to paint green in a thousand different hues. He rather found a green blooded goddess among the foliage. Wandering there for a decade, this young man metamorphosed into a talented landscape painter and he is no other that POTELU SRINIVASA RAO of Palakonda village. The advancing greens and receding blues of his paintings originated from those wandering days. They have a symbolism of their own. With the familiar palette or red, blue and green he achieved a dynamic balance of color structures. All his works of this early period represented a curious visual phenomenon. By choosing this kind of technique Srinivasarao held every element under great vibrating tension. All the paintings of this early phase powered with maximum intensity. When he imbued brilliant patterns of light and shades into his canvas he found himself satisfied. Hailing from a place which is surrounded by thick forests and green hills, is the major reason for his preference of abstract color combinations. Instead of searching for many colors in the white, he visualized innumerable shades through the green only. The haziness and the mystery of his paintings is the result of his repetitive answers to the querying by the wilderness. After this first phase of semi nomadic wandering spells in the hills, Srinivasarao entered the threshold of city life and tried his hand at inculcating his knowledge of colors to the school children. But the mechanical surroundings and the non-aesthetic beings around him drove Srinivasarao to his earlier ozone-circle. Thanks for the happening. The native has successfully returned to his picturesque landscape with new projects in his mind. This home coming helped him to move deep into the mountains. The grazing sheep amidst the green pastures kindled his inner spirit to higher levels. The aroma of the mother earth proved more meaningful. The rustic surroundings took him into its fold. The primeval elements silently signaled him many mysterious messages. He owed to follow the wilderness forever and settled in a farmhouse. The fantastic views of the mountain peaks solaced him. In these favourable surroundings Srinivasarao felt fulfillment of observing all the wonders of nature. By traveling into the depths of the dense foliage, his visual language developed and his heart filled with ineffable joy. Here began his pilgrimage into the realms color and his metaphysical intuition has started.

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As his vision reached a state of perfection he found his ancestors roaming in the rustic surroundings and valleys, playing their bamboo flutes beside their flocks of sheep. While he journeyed into the bosom of forests and into the tranquility of ths hills, he heard the secrets of life in the silent prayers of the falling leaves. Then he further heard the reverberating voices of his ancestors, who told him we honour you for painting our prayers, we love you for you are loving our foot falls. This moment liberated Srinivasarao from all the mundane bondage. His philosophical bent of mind changed him into a yogi and his divine love of nature inspired his evolution. As he reached a state of spirituality like this, Srinivasarao gradually developed a direct contact with the cosmic presence and his is deeply influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and Khalil-Zibrans philosophy. The idea of creativity for Srinivasarao is a compulsory one. He loves everything that comes out form the surrounding world. All these second phase paintings reveal his cravings and yearnings to abstract the philosophic ideology. For that reason he resorted to the non-representational, non-figurative and nonobjective philosophy. Some times these multi layered oil and acrylic works appear as if blinking and change into various patterns of life. The loops, swirls, ups and downs of the paint constructions point to the quivering lip movements of a worshiper. In contrast to his early figurative works, these abstract paintings and mystical diagrams focus our attention to the inner domain of the artist. It is a kind of self realization which led to his spiritual development. These self-stylistic manifestations are really suitable to be considered as symbolic mantras. With the hope of expressing the transcendental ideas, Srinivasarao used the paint as a supplementary expression to fulfill his urge of strengthening his Philo-scapes. Hence it became a colored music, where Srinivasa Rao applied a personal system of abstracting the dreamy forms. It also helped to liberate the color form the form. Though this type of color abstraction has been developed in the early years of twentieth century by the European painters, Srinivasarao negotiated the abyss of color and developed this technic with his intuitive power. He centers his theory of nature -meditation without depicting any form of figurative objects. Further it is the idea of worshiping in the absence of the worshiper. His paintings helped for the awakening of the consciousness. All these paintings are non representational compositions, conveying emotionally the expressive qualities of a divine landscape. The arcane force of this expression is deeply felt. By doing so he became an exegetist of his subconscious. Some times there are a few suggestions of a water fall or a murmuring stream. But we see every where the luxuriant forms of color-falls. Though there are a few adaptations of aggressive approaches, they also fall under the characteristics of the pictorial images. I congratulate him and wish him success in future endeavours on behalf of the artist friends and the faculty of fine arts. Let all of these philo-scape paintings add their power for global greening and for the welfare of the humanity and for the environmental awareness for the cause of the peace of the global-village.
Let the singing stars and songs of the infinite be his guiding spirits forever in his attempts to paint his native wilderness

Prof. M. Adinarayana Art Historian

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