Renowned sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik unveils a new side of his art in Chennai

“Life is like sand. You can hold it in your hand, but it slips away. I believe that we must leave something behind that lasts and makes an impression, and paintings are my my way of doing that,” says Sudarshan Pattnaik, renowned sand artist, who has won several accolades including the Padma Shri and a Guinness World Record for creating the world’s largest sandcastle, usually on the beaches of Puri, Odisha.

The artist was recently in Chennai, to present his third gallery show Nature’s Rhythm: Sand and Sublime, at the Lalit Kala Akademi. Comprising over 50 art works, the exhibition brought together Sudarshan’s two worlds — paintings and sand. Each work had some element of Nature, and he had used sand from his hometown Puri, where he first began doing sand art. 

Sudarshan Pattnaik
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Special Arrangement

“I started doing sand art because we did not have resources to buy paints and brushes. Tourists used to see my art and appreciate it, so it inspired me to keep going,” says Sudarshan, adding that he slowly grew into an artist despite the hardships of being a child labourer. “I used to work in a tea shop near the Jagannath Temple, and the tourists would see my watercolour paintings there, but as I got famous for sand art, I left paintings behind. I want to bring that back now,” he says. 

The exhibition, which was previously displayed at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata, and then at Galleria VSB, New Delhi, explores the conflicts arising from human interventions. “All these paintings have a connection to Nature and climate change. This one is about the turtle migration and the impact of human life on Nature,” he says pointing out to a painting depicting Olive Ridley turtles that migrate to India’s East coast for nesting every year. These turtles have been turning up on coasts dead due to entanglement in fishing nets from illegal and unregulated trawling.

“I believe that art comes from everywhere. In big cities there are avenues for artists to display their art, but in smaller cities and towns, there are no galleries. I managed to open eight galleries in eight districts in Odisha,” he says. Sudarshan, who went on to become Lalit Kala Akademi Odisha’s youngest president, says that art holds an important role of spreading positivity and raising awareness in society.