Painting titled "BUDDHA HEAD 02" by Bodhi Selvam, Original Artwork, Acrylic

BUDDHA HEAD 02 (2020) Painting by Bodhi Selvam

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Sold by Bodhi Selvam

Original Artwork (One Of A Kind) Painting, Acrylic on Canvas

Artworks classification

One of a kind (OOAK / Original Artwork)

One-of-a-kind works of art are also known as “OOAK” artworks. This means that every work of art is unique and there will never be another identical one.
Dimensions Height 24in, Width 24in
Framing This artwork is not framed
Categories Paintings under $5,000 Abstract

Article by: V. Marriappan

How Buddha would have looked like? The painter’s lines and dots provide an answer to this mystic question.
Why has he chosen Buddha as the pivotal force for his portraits? The way Siddhartha in the third century B.C shed his cosy and comfortable princely life and set out to get at the root of answers to some mysterious questions about life, struggle and death has charmed Bodhi Selvam. The spell is so deep and everlasting that he set out to identify his life and outlook with Buddhist teachings and also draw up portraits of Buddha in His state of nirvana.
His paintings dexterously recapture the very moment of Buddha’s enlightenment, the ‘sambodhi’ moment as he calls it. He says about how he was captivated by His journey towards the roots of the universe. Disrobing himself of the royal comfort, He went out in search of the roots. Initially , he undertook a severe and austere penance, subjecting himself to a rigorous schedule of denial, forgoing food and water for years together. He was abandoned by His own men and yet He pursued his goal of enlightenment.
Like Buddha who did not have any guru or teacher in his spiritual journey Bodhi Selvam too did not have teacher to learn from. His painting style is absolutely self-made in the sense that as he is a self-made painter, he says that his portraits draw themselves. The moment he drew up Buddha’s head with a bamboo stick dipped in black, the rest of the features automatically came alive into the picture.

Bodhi Selvam

India

Note by : V. Marriappan The 52-year-old artist, with shrubby beard glistening in black and eyes radiating undying dreams, speaks in a voice that has echoes of Zen sages. He says, “ I have been greatly[...]

Note by : V. Marriappan

The 52-year-old artist, with shrubby beard glistening in black and eyes radiating undying dreams, speaks in a voice that has echoes of Zen sages. He says, “ I have been greatly influenced to a great extent by Zen ideology and I have incorporated it into my life. It has greatly guided my work and is largely visible in my style of work.’’

While there are several schools of thought in painting such as expressionism, impressionism, post-modernism etc, he has belonged to none of them; rather he has plumbed for the esoteric and awesome Zen school of spiritualism; a seemingly unlikely plain for painting.

Maybe, from the very beginning, he has been a spiritualist and later, chose palette to give expression to his thoughts mellowed in meditations. He says, “Zen is not something that can be understood at the surface level; it’s something that needs to be experienced and that has become a part of me.’’

“Way back in 1994, I attained clarity through deep meditation and from then on, it has helped me gain greater clarity and inner happiness. For the past three decades, I have been following the path of Zen and it’s that guiding force that is reflective in all my endeavors. My life is filled with art and meditation’’, he says.

Bodhi Selvam has constantly been working on various series that have a strong underlying tone of Buddha and Zen throughout.

A painter with no formal education, Bodhi Selvam calls ‘Sambodhi’ the fruit of his most recent journey into the Zen way of life. There were times when I went on journey to find answers to the mysterious philosophical questions.

He had been searching for answers to certain troubling questions about life and universe. He got an answer from the inspiring Nature. The name of the answer is Zen Buddha painting.