Article: Shalmali Prabhu; Photos: Manju Neereshwallya

Editor’s Note: The article is written by Shalmali Prabhu, a computer professional at mphasis, Mangalore. As her writings below suggest, her interests include reading and browsing. We thank Shalmali for this excellent write up that serves a perfect accompaniment to Manju-anna’s spectacular photographs

Ramdas L.K Shevgoor is one of the famous artists in Mangalore. He is the owner of Shevgoor fine arts, Mangalore. His father, Late Laxman Kamath Shevgoor was also an artist. Laxman Kamath Shevgoor was trained in paintings at Mumbai and later he practiced in Mangalore. After Laxman Kamath Shevgoor expired, his son Mr.Ramdas L.K Shevgoor went to Mumbai at the age of 21 after the completion of BSc. He was trained at Nootan Kala Mandir, Indian Art Institute and J.J School of Applied Arts organizations for three and a half years, and started his profession in Mangalore. Long back, people were made to sit in front of the artists in order to draw their picture. At present, different poses are captured and presented in the form of oil painting. The quality of this painting is excellent. There won’t be any threat to the demand for this sort of cultural art how much ever the digital technologies get advanced. This is the uniqueness of this art. By the way, the cost of one such painting might start from Rs3500 and go up to Rs4000.

This is not an easy task. These are the paintings done with lot of dedication. It is the result of one complete year of hard work. It is the painting done upon canvas using oil paints. These are the paintings of 78 great people who given their whole life to serve for the Konkani language, art, culture, sport, business and also served regarding education, religious and social matters. This is the magic of L.K Shevgoor’s hands, an artist from Mangalore. These paintings have been preserved and exhibited permanently in Konkani Language & Cultural Foundation Center.

Famous TV reporter Rajdeep Sardesai inaugurated this exhibition by garlanding his father’s photo which is one amongst the paintings; also he was a famous cricketer, Late Dilip Sardesai.

These paintings are the pictures of great achievers like Dilip Sardesai, Kudmul Ranga Rao, Ammembal Subbarao Pai, Manjeshwar Govind Pai, George Fernandes, Shyam Benegal, Putthu Vaikunt Shet, Manjunath Pai, Dr.T.M.A Pai, Srinivas Mallya. The list continues……

Journey of paintings

These are the paintings of rare achievers about whom Mr Ramdas L.K Shevgoor, the owner of Shevgoor Fine Arts, spoke with proud and enthusiasm.-

“This journey of paintings started when Mr.Basti Vaman Shenoy, who collected photos, sketches, stamps, cards, paper cutting and many other photos traveling all over country, took his collection and told me to paint them in the finest unique way. And they were 78 pictures”.

Each painting took 3-4 sitting i.e., I had to dedicate 12 hours of 3-4 days. Every painting is 15X12 inches size having attractive shawl, jewellery, silk cloth etc which consumes extra time than the time mentioned before. I have put my heart and soul painting these pictures. Every minute variation was been observed and painted with best looks, effects and quality. There are chances of going out of focus when it comes to give photographic quality to pictures. It is something to worry about. But it can be done in a single portrait of large size with less worry. This has best effect and is long lasting, said Ramdas.