Aleti Sai Ram Pramodhini Reddy and Patel Narsimha Reddy of Hyderabad have a new wedding essential. The couple who will tie the knot on April 24 at Rock Enclave Convention Centre at Ghatkeskar have hired a painter to capture their special ceremony live. In an age of selfies, Instagram reels and digital images, the couple prefers to preserve their memories of the wedding in an album filled with sketches, colours and strokes, instead of photographs.
Artist Keerthana Adepu in Hyderabad has a busy April with five weddings scheduled to capture. Her ‘wedding shopping’ includes a 14x18 canvas board and acrylics of resplendent red, yellow and green to depict the couple and the wedding decor.
“The focus of our work is to evoke a special feeling about the wedding day; each time the couple looks at our artwork, they go back in time and cherish memories of that day,” says Keerthana (@art_casm). Her first artwork for a wedding was an antarpat (the cloth screen held between the bride and the groom during the wedding) in June 2023 for a friend; then she created her first live wedding painting in November. With orders placed through social media, the 22-year-old has, so far, done around 60 antarpats and 13 wedding paintings live in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Khammam and Karimnagar.
Narrative art
Photography/videography has become essential to a wedding irrespective of the scale of the event. Images accompanied by digital technology narrate stories with meticulously planned photographs. Even so, narrative art is significant, observes artist Srishti Prabakar (@anchoredhues). The Chennai-based artist believes, ”A painting captures some details more than a photo would, plus there’s that human touch.” With experience in doing live event painting and stylised couple portraits over four years, she did her first live wedding painting at the start of 2024. “The painting was a wedding gift from the groom’s close friend, and it involved painting five events across the four-day celebration,” she says.
The artists sit in an earmarked space — sometimes near the mandap or in front of a screen — and sketch/paint spontaneously as the ceremony progresses. Looking for emotions and memories to capture in those moments, Srishti uses watercolours, mostly along with ink, to paint the main scenes but uses acrylics for a snapshot of an event and the decor. She also looks for other details and mood. “Essentially, these are something to look back and smile upon; sometimes, it could be something as simple as the couple conversing on the crowded mandap, or finally eating after fasting for long hours before the pooja,” she says.
Art imagery
In Hyderabad, the small breed of live wedding painters is growing. The trend of live wedding painting in the city began two years ago, says M Sanjay Kumar of Eshwariah Art Gallery, who curated art at a wedding at Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre. “The families of the bride and the groom were into literature and enthusiasts of music and art,” he recalls.
Artist Prasuna Murali sketched moments like the bride being carried in a pelli butta (cane basket) by her maternal uncles, the couple placing jeelakarra-bellam on each other’s heads, tying the mangalsutra and playing traditional games. Sanjay and a team of two members were present at that ceremony. “Sometimes people engage artists to paint portraits of guests at weddings akin to a mehendi artist creating designs for guests, or a bangle seller helping guests try out what suits them,” he says.
Buoyant scene
Live painting is picking up in tier-2 cities too. For instance, Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh has gained enormous response from the locals, says software engineer-turned-live wedding painter Dhanushya Pallem (@dhanupaintslive). “Regardless of where we are, we should be able to create opportunities. Being in Vijayawada doesn’t reduce the value of my work compared to big cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, or Chennai,” says this self-taught artist.
Besides Vijayawada, orders have taken Dhanushya to Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru, Chennai, Eluru, Guntur and Hyderabad. Using acrylics on Lenin canvas (made from flax plant fibre, the canvas has a finer texture than cotton) she visits the venue early to take a photograph and paint the couple and decor. “If something special happens during the event, I add those moments as an emotion.” The process involves applying varnish once the paint is dry, so she suggests that clients keep it aside for at least six hours to frame it. Thrilled with the response — she has completed 12 orders since February and has 16 new bookings — Dhanushya says, “It feels great to travel for art and I also feel fortunate to make someone’s day with a painting that will be cherished forever!”
The process also poses challenges. “Having to complete the painting at the speed at which the event happens is tough,” says Srishti. “Detailing takes a lot of time and effort, so it is always a switch between capturing what I want to paint and taking time to complete it. Also, people at the wedding keep interrupting to comment on your work or ask many questions. It’s difficult to not get distracted and continue to work with focus, but still be polite to guests.”
The price of the artworks starts from ₹20,000 and goes upwards till ₹2 lakh (based on size and requirements) and the artist’s travel and accommodation expenses is to be borne by the client for an outstation wedding. A live wedding painting is often chosen as a gift for siblings, friends or even by the bride and groom wanting to surprise their spouse.
So next time you plan to take a selfie with the bride and the groom, look around; an artist might also have captured this moment, on canvas.
