Narayana Bhattathiri

An artist for whom ‘calligraphy is the art of eternity or rather the art that captures eternity in a visual form’ is none other than the great Narayana Bhattathiri. His admiration for calligraphy is exalted. According to him, calligraphy could evoke something beyond its visual quality; it could take the viewer to a different rhythm, a different feel, and a different journey though it is purely virtual and mostly undefinable. He has paved and found his way for pure calligraphy by himself only. Narayana hails from the Edappon, a small village nearby Pandalam in Kerala, India. He did his graduation from the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, India, majored in painting. Further, he joined the Kalakaumudi group of publications as a learning artist. He was the person to onset the calligraphy trend as he was the first and only person to be epitomized as a Malayalam calligrapher in Kerala.

Kerala never had a history of calligraphy, but this artist has set an example. He likes to play with Malayalam alphabets and design them according to his style. His dedication to his passion is overweening as he gets up at three o clock early in the morning and draws a couple of calligraphy at that time. It has become a ritual to him which he can’t put aside. Speaking about his fondness and what he writes, he writes poems. When he commenced calligraphy, writing poems was a piece of old tackie for him.

He seems to have a great fondness for  Balachandran Chullikkadu Balachandran Chullikkadu is a noted Malayalam poet >> Read More... , a poet known for influencing youth by dint of his poems loaded with existential solicitude and sense of alienation and the dejection for the failed revolutions. Taking inspiration from him, he began doing calligraphy in his unique way. All this creativity landed many achievements; for instance, He is the worthy recipient of the ‘Jikji Excellence Award’ in the International Calligraphy for 2017 and 2018;

His art pieces have been chosen for the Calligraphers in Conversation (5th Annual International Calligraphy Exhibition, San Francisco). His exquisite calligraphy work has also been displayed at the famous Calligraphy Stone Park in Herbin, China. Narayana has been well known for conducting numerous exhibitions at art galleries and a few educational institutions in distant parts of India. In addition, he has been a usual contestant at the International Typo Day Conferences for the past few years. The list of his accomplishments is quite long. But this must be said that now Narayana is a well-known artist worldwide, spreading his style.