Sharat Valluri
Artist Portfolio
Sharat Valluri
Although I have never had any formal training in fine art, I have been painting and sketching ever since I can remember. Most of the artwork displayed in this website dates from my first serious works in the second year of my engineering studies (1987) to the present.
Artistic Influences:
My original works predominantly portray traditional figurative themes from Indian mythology and history. My original work and style is considerably influenced by the great Telugu artists Bapu and Vaddadi Papayya. After years of copying the sketches of Bapu, I am still overwhelmed by the extraordinary expressiveness, noble grace and effortless economy of his line drawings.
The exquisite sculpture at the temple complexes of Belur and Halebidu in Karnataka, India has also been a source of eternal inspiration and joy to me for many years. I have made numerous visits to these temples in the recent years, sketching from their walls. I have developed a website www.Halebidu.com in a modest attempt to bring the magnificence of the artistry and the blissful, noble grandeur of the sculptures at the Halebidu temple to audiences across India and the world.
I greatly admire Michelangelo, who I believe was the greatest artist of all time, and the works of neo-classical and pre-Raphaelite painters such as Lord Frederick Leighton, David and William Bouguereau, many of whose works I have reproduced. I also admire the style and themes of a group of contemporary Romantic Realist artists whose work may be seen at the website www.cordair.com.
My mother, Mrs. Revathi Ramakrishna, who is a considerably innovative and accomplished artist, has been instrumental in initially kindling and subsequently sustaining my interest in art from my early childhood.
Philosophical Influences:
I am an ardent admirer of the works of the novelist philosopher, Ayn Rand, whose philosophical premises ring deeply true and whose projection of Man, the noble and heroic being, as he could and should be, is the most compelling aesthetic ideal. Her treatise on the nature and value of great art "The Romantic Manifesto" is an unparalleled masterpiece and one of my most cherished books.
My dear friend Shashi Ganghas, who is a very insightful philosopher, has been instrumental in clarifying and illustrating for me many of the finer principles of Ayn Rand's philosophy in general and her theory of aesthetics in particular and has been a source of unending encouragement and critical appreciation of my artwork.
Interests:
In addition to painting and sculpture, I have an enduring love for Karnatic classical music, which I have been learning for the past several years. I derive tremendous joy from the mellifluous renditions of Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna. My other favorite singers are Maharajapuram Santhanam, and the Urdu Ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan, whose voice, I think, is the closest thing on earth to moonlight.
I also love adventure sports such as windsurfing, scuba diving and sky diving.
Profession, Education and Personal Information:
Professionally, I am a Marine & Offshore structural engineer presently working for a Classification Society in Houston, Texas, where I work in Advanced Technology and Research as a Director of Engineering. I completed a bachelors degree in Marine Engineering from DMET, Calcutta in 1990 and then worked for ten years on board various merchant oil tankers serving the last two years as Chief Engineer. Thereafter I completed a Masters degree in Ocean Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002. I recently graduated with an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
I currently live in Houston, Texas, with my adorable kids, Aamukta (9) & Ahir (6) and my lovely wife, Vandana, who has an astute artistic perceptiveness and aesthetic sensitivity and is the touchstone, as it were, for all of my art.
Info
20327 Mary Point Ln
Cypress, TX 77433
Sharat.Vallluri@outlook.com
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