Mittu says that memories and experiences often find expression through the medium of colours.A few random brush strokes could be easily made out of sheer fun as any kid would vouch. Like any other child, for Mittu Gopalan too, the walls in her home were the first canvas where she sketched her dreams. Though she grew up in a flat at Kochi, her colour palettes gave rise to slope-roofed rural houses, tress with falling yellow leaves, green hills and misty valleys on the canvas. Many give uo childhood passions, but Mittu couldn't. Even when she donned the lawyer’s ‘black and white’ cape, Mittu didn’t give up her passion for colours. She moved to Sydney after marriage and began a career as a leading lawyer there. But the passionate artist in Mittu didn’t forget to pack her paints and brushes when she flew off to Australia.
Why one should paint
Mittu has found a purpose in pursuing her hobby. “Paintings should not be mere brush strokes that you do for fun. It should add colour to your life. Paintings and sketches have always given me happy memories. It is to experience that joy that I pick up a paint brush. Last November I held an exhibition of my portraits in Sydney. The show named ‘Add colour to your life’ conducted at the Brush Farm House in Eastwood was truly a celebration of my dreams. Around 70 paintings were displayed at the exhibition,” says Mittu.
Mittu says she is extremely happy and proud that she continued her passion even while working as a busy solicitor. It was the Australian Finance minister Victor Michael Dominello who inaugurated her exhibition in Sydney.
Her father, former advocate general KP Dandapani, was the one who led her into the world of colours and paint brushes. He and his wife advocate Sumathy were only too happy to encourage their daughter to pursue her passion along with her academics.
Mittu says, “My parents and brother Millu Dandapani always supported me to continue painting. Had they taken the paint brushes away from my hands as a little kid, these pictures wouldn’t have been born. I began to draw even before I was enrolled at a school. I trained for a short period at Kalabhavan as well. My paintings appeared on the cover of the school magazine when I was a student at Elamakkara Bharatiya Vidyabhavan. The prizes that I won for the competitions at school and college really made me confident to continue my passion for painting.”
The Australian saga
Mittu married Manoj Gopalan, who is the financial general manager at the Australian trading commission, in 1993. The memories of the paintings that she left at home was still fresh in her mind as she began her career as a solicitor in Sydney. Colour became a part of her life again when she enrolled for an art class at the Macquarie Community College 10 years ago. She says that her husband Manoj and her kids Maneesha, a third-year law student, and Meghna, who is in 10th standard, are really supportive and encouraging.
Mittu has painted around 70 paintings so far, right from childhood. At her exhibition, she included the pictures that she painted as a little girl under the category ‘Childhood Memories’. ‘Womanhood’ projected the fierce and confident woman in Mittu.
“It was my ‘Sleeping Buddha’ which attracted many. A blue Buddha sleeping peacefully amidst blooming flowers truly captured their minds. In the painting titled ‘Tranquility’ too, the image of Buddha with half closed eyes could be seen near a flower. ‘Eye of the Tiger’ which provoked fear and curiosity at the same time was another favourite in the exhibition,” says Mittu.
Pointing to her paintings, Mittu says that memories and experiences often find expression through the medium of colours. Mittu was shocked by the untimely death of her friend Babitha’s daughter Rebecca. Rebecca had dreamed of becoming a successful lawyer like Mittu and was all set to continue her studies in Sydney. But Rebecca passed away in a motor accident. Mittu’s painting which portrays a girl’s soul wandering through the hills and valley was borne from that pain of loss.
Standing proudly among her beautiful and expressive paintings Mittu vouches, “There is an artist in every child. Don’t let that child go even when we have grown up.”
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