There are some people in the world whom we meet in a lifetime and they unknowingly leave an everlasting impression on our minds with their amazing, extraordinary creative abilities. S Jayaraj is such an incredibly versatile human kind. Jayaraj’s repertoire of work is multifaceted as well as multidimensional in terms of medium. He believes that the material of expression is not an issue of importance. No matter what medium he works in, Jayaraj always brings a unique and fresh perspective to his artwork. With a stroke from his brush, with a line from his pencil, he spells magic.
Born in a small hamlet in Tirunelveli in Southern part of India in April 1962, Jayaraj was both a dreamer and a doer from his childhood days. The taunts he experienced in his school days gave vent to his artistic expression. He then drew sketches, cartoons and caricatures of schoolmates. Thus the artist in him was born at a very tender age of 8.
The Government College of Arts, Chennai, from where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication Design opened avenues and it was here that he explored the work of art – the vivid world of colours. He specialised in illustration particularly, in rendering line drawings - cross hatching, parallel lines, scribble lines and various innovative techniques with line combinations.
The artist is fluent in a variety of media from small pen and inks to large canvasses painted in media like oil on canvas and acrylic on canvas. Working in charcoal and pastels stand close to Jayaraj’s heart and he loves to bring out the beautiful expressions through this medium. He has a sensitive touch to portraits done in ink and he loves to work in black and white medium through his pen and ink drawings. He uses small thin strokes, which have a scratchy effect, and creates the required depth. He is very innovative with the way he uses lines and scribbles. He firmly believes that the black and white medium is best equipped to capture certain moods and expressions, which also furnishes an ethnic look to the artwork. But he is equally facile with graphite, watercolours and coloured sketches. The same kind of deftness is revealed in his paintings too.
Jayaraj is mesmerised by the rural life of India and has always well captured and brought them brilliantly alive on his canvasses. He has drawn several poignant portraits of rural folk and sketched their lives and lifestyles. He loves to bring the realities of the rural people, their mundane lives and poor livelihoods on his canvas. Jayaraj does not work only in deeds but he works in his dreams as well. He thinks and visualizes and spends good enough time on thinking deeply about a subject, its meaning and relevance, the colours, composition and designs before setting his artistic hand on the canvas. He says that he paints from his sub-conscious, which means that he spends his conscious hours feeding the sub-conscious. He expresses that what comes out on the canvas is straightway related to his inner most emotions. He travels across sub-continents and says that new places, landscapes and people widen his horizons and perspectives as a painter.
Apart from these, the other side of the artist can be seen through his figurative drawings with wonderful expressions. This has been his all-time favourite and he is very fanatical and a keen student of figures, forms, shapes, curves as that adds beauty to his work and he does full justice in doing so. He says that the human figure, especially the women have always fascinated him. He strongly believes that women are the greatest and the most beautiful creations of God.
Jayaraj also applies the principles of his figurative works to his bright abstract paintings, concentrating on the harmony of saturated colours to visually portray calmness, happiness, curiosity and solitude. His impressive and varied output reflects a rare blend of imagination, creativity, knowledge and craftsmanship.
Jayaraj has several awards to his credit in commercial art and paintings since his school days, the most important one being the painting titled – “A Day at the Airport” at an on-the-spot painting competition organized by International Airport Authority of India (IAAI) in 1987 that won him laurels. The famous Maestro of arts, Mr. M.F. Hussain, adjudged his painting as the Best Painting.
Another feather that was recently added to his cap was when he got an opportunity to contribute one of his prized collections - sketch on “Street Children of India” to the Hon’ble President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on 6 July 2010. The painting proudly stands as a souvenir on the walls of Children’s Museum in Rashtrapati Bhawan (President’s House), New Delhi.
His many paintings and drawings are adorned as private collections in countries like Australia, Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Sri Lanka, United States of America and India.
Jayaraj does not consider himself merely to be a painter. He is a contemporary artist and has not allowed the brush and the canvas to imprison him. There lies a renowned photographer and a filmmaker on the other side of him. He does wonders in shooting fleeting expressions and gestures of people around him. He has made a number of short films and documentaries for various national and international organizations and agencies.
The recent film developed by him was a documentary on Mangroves as bio-shield against flood disasters and deadly catastrophe like Tsunami, which was shot in different parts of Tamil Nadu, India. The film also contained citations from an interview with Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the renowned agricultural scientist.
Ever radiant with his smile, Jayaraj dreams, dreams that many a young painter always would, of a world splashed with vibrant hues
