Jeeva Artist

Oviyar Jeeva (Artist) (Jeevananthan Velayutham) as he is known in artist circles is a law graduate, who had love for painting right from his school days.
Introduction
Jeevananthan is a lawyer by education, Artist by passion and a designer by profession. He can be best described as an Artist, Teacher, Movie Critic, Writer and Lawyer. Born on 15th March, 1956 he is the eldest son of N. Velayutham Pillai, a famous banner artist for most of the Tamil films during 1950’s, 60s and 70’s in the Coimbatore Area and the proprietor of Cine Arts established in 1954.
Education
Jeevananthan Velayutham started his education in English medium and Hindi as his second language. He did his schooling from Kikani Higher Secondary School, Coimbatore. He pursued his Degree in Political Science from Government Arts College, Coimbatore. At Presidency College, Chennai he did his higher studies in Post Graduation in Political Science. He emerged with a Degree in Law from Coimbatore Law College. In addition to all he completed PGDPM from Coimbatore Productivity Council.
Early days
Jeevananthan never got an opportunity to learn or study in Tamil during his childhood days. His love for the language made him learn it and excel in it. Since his dad was a Communist, even as a young boy Jeeva got an opportunity to attend the meetings of renowned personalities like P. Jeevanandham, Thavathiru Kundrakudi Adigalar, Jayakanthan and many others.
From childhood Jeeva had a habit of reading Tamil, Hindi and English comics along with most of the Tamil magazines available at that era. Though his dad was a trained artist Jeeva didn’t learn art. Instead he inherited his dad’s talents and started drawings with his intuitions.
Jeevanantham got his inspirations from Artist Prakash Chandra (Founder of Chitrakala academy - Coimbatore) who is also his Guru for modern art paintings.
After his father’s demise in 1981, when he was still a student, he took his family business on his shoulders and painted thousands of banners for films. Since then he has been taking care of Cine Arts - the company started by his dad.
Achievements
Jeevanantham's achievements started blooming since the time he started painting as a Banner artist. Being a Cinema Banner Artist he painted thousands of Giant Banners which are now an extinct art.
Jeevanatham's paintings got exhibited at many places. Since 1978, he has been exhibiting his works at Chithrakala Academy’s Annual Art Exhibition in Coimbatore, Chennai and Bengaluru. His painting collections are there all over the world and at Valluvar Kottam, Chennai.
Jeeva got selected as one of the 133 painters from all over India to paint KuralOviyams exhibited since 2000, with the unveiling of Valluvar Statue at Kanyakumari.
As a student journalist, he wrote film reviews for the Tamil magazine Kalki in the 1980s which fetched him accolades. This helped him turn an illustrator for literary magazines besides designing covers for novels. He was also a student Artist in Dhisaigal a youth magazine edited by Maalan during 80s.
He did a Banner cut out assignment for [], Switzerland, at Perundurai, Tamilnadu in 2004.
Jeeva has painted banners and posters for 20 dramas for a theatre group Schauspielhaus Zürich at Zurich, Switzerland and have also done acrylic portraits on Canvas.
He exhibited a one man show of Paintings on Communist leader P. Jeevanandham as part of his Centenary celebrations two years back (2009).
He has done Illustrations for Ajantha Ellora documentaries produced jointly by Japan and Maharashtra governments and directed by R. Ramkumar, of the legendary Vikram Studios. He is also an Illustrator for short stories in Tamil Magazine Vaarththai, Om Sakthi, Veedu (Canada), Uyirmai etc. He designed Book wrappers for most of Naanjil Naadan’s Novels.
Jeeva delivers lectures and demonstrations on portraits in most of the Colleges in and around Coimbatore as a part of Fine Arts club activities.
He is an active member of Sunday art classes since 1979 for students. Many illustrious personalities are all once students of these classes.
Few of them would be
Maniraj - Art director in movies (Ghilli, Dhool, etc)
Muthuraj - Art director in movies (Pazhassi Raja, Angadi Theru etc.)
S. Vaithy - Cinematographer (Maruthamalai etc)
Kathiravan - Presently with Cartoon Network
Senthilkumar - One of India’s top 10 model photographers from Bangalore.
Ram Prasad - Chief Assistant Art Director to Rajeevan

During the years 2008 and 2009 Jeeva took monthly art classes to inmates of Central Prison, Coimbatore.
Awards
Jeevananthan is a proud man today. From being an Artist he turned his vision on Writing. His book Thirai seelai, has got Special Mention in the “Best Book” category of the National Film Awards, 2011, that were announced in Delhi on 19th May, 2011. What is remarkable is that Jeevananthan has never had any formal training in Tamil writing or reading.
The citation he received says “This book is a sincere attempt to analyze important developments in Tamil film. It also provides an insight into the classics of world cinema highlighting their aesthetic values.”
The book, which happens to be his first, is a reflection of the many hours spent watching and analyzing world cinema. There are 40 chapters, each discussion the various aspects of movies. All the essays were hand-picked from among the numerous articles written for the magazine “Rasanai” over the years. Thiraicheelai was published by Dr Trishakthi Sundar Raman through Trishakthi Publications.
He got nominated as one of the World’s best 100 Caricaturists by Romanian Cartoonists Association in 2007. He won “Excellency Prize for best artists in the world for 2007”.
Recently he won “Vocational Excellence Award” from Rotaract Club of Coimbatore Unique.
Jeevananthan Velayutham is now President of Chitrakala Academy - An association of Artists, Coimbatore.
Art and family
For Jeevananthan, art is something he grew up with. It is an inherent part of him, so much so that he gave up his profession as an advocate to devote time to painting and cinema. Not content with confining himself just to one facet of art, he has diverse hobbies. He is a person who has dedicated his heart and soul to Art.
Art runs in Jeevananthan’s blood line too. He is happily married to Thamizharasi. Anand and Meena are the fruits of their happy life.
His son Anand completed B.Sc.(Viscom) from Loyola College, Chennai and DFT from Chennai Film institute. He is now a cinematographer in Chennai Film industry. Currently he works for a movie ’Odi Vaa’ which is in production.
His daughter Meena is at her final year BSc (IT) at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.
His brother V. Manikandan is a renowned cinematographer and was associated with prestigious projects such as “Om Shanti Om” and “Raavan”.

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