Atlanta, GA: Dr. City based artist Sivananda Nyayapathi’s portrait, ‘Kirtana’ recently won the first prize and the members’ choice award at the Portrait Society of Atlanta’s Winter 2013 Exhibition.
A well-known and respected artist in the community, Dr. Sivananda was born into an artistic family. His father, Nyayapathi Sri Venkateswara Row was a painter, writer, dramatist and singer. During his childhood, Sivananda watched for hours while his father painted. That was the inspiration that led him to art. He started off with pencil drawings and water color paintings, for which he has been winning awards since he was 12 years old.
During his undergraduate studies at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, he had got the opportunity to work with oils, which was mostly self-taught from various books. Sivananda won awards for his artwork and represented IIT in inter-IIT competitions. He had also painted huge backdrops for the stage productions during his college days. He had received special awards for his outstanding contribution to art during his stay at IIT.
After coming to Atlanta, he pursued learning from great modern day international masters like Daniel Greene, Burton Silverman, David A. Leffel, Dawn Whitelaw, Michael Shane Neal, Jim Schell and Nancy Honea.
Sivananda has exhibited in many one man and group shows in the USA. His art work has been included in two art books – International Contemporary Masters Volume V in 2011, Best of World Wide Oil Painters in 2012. National art magazines like American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Art of the West, Atlanta Style have also covered his art work.
He has also been teaching art for the past many years.
