OT Ravindran

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Ravindran Oyitty Thavorath (1934-2006), popularly known as O.T. Ravindran or OTR was an accomplished plant artist from India. He was more popular abroad than in India. He was also known for being a horticulturist, a landscape designer, an ecologist, a botanist, and a painter; though he gained fame more as a botanical artist.

His demonstration of plants in all of his artwork showed his devotion towards nature. He, therefore, wouldn't miss an opportunity to take part in any kind of movements aiming to protect and conserve the ecology.

According to one of his close friends, Theodore Bhaskaran, who is also a filmmaker, Ravindran was an “independent soul” who wasn't into materialism but his only concern was to save the nature through plants. He would visit a plant several times in a day and/or seasons to exactly understand its physical traits and texture. As part of his work, he not only worked on watercolor portraits of South Indian orchids; but also cultivated them. He would collect rainwater and used it in his paintings in all his work since he believed that it had a natural appeal and would radiate better outlook as compared to normal/purified water.

Early life and education

He was born to O.T. Krishnan (father) and Devika (mother) in 1934 in Cannanore (now Kannur), in an Indian state, Kerala. He had five siblings.

He pursued Bachelor of Arts in Botany at Government Arts College, Madras (now Chennai) in the year 1956; and Master of Arts (Philosophy) at Madras Christian College in 1958. Ravindran's fascination towards flora began in his childhood which was spent mostly in Kannur district, Kerala. It grew stronger with time to the extent that he was often labeled as “nutcase” by people around him.

Background

OTR lived in Nandanam Extension in Madras. A long-time resident of Madras, he was also a freelance journalist, a photographer, a nurseryman, and an illustrator other than being an artist. During the British Raj, particularly after founding of the School of Arts and Crafts in Chennai, a few Indian artists were commissioned to paint plants, as part of scientific records. Other than this, there was no tradition of botanical art. OTR was one of the artists and contributed heavily to the collection of this school. This led to his work being exhibited in the US, UK, and other parts of the world. This could have been one of the reasons why OTR and his work were more popular in the West than in India.

Awards and Achievements

Since 1968, he had been representing India in all kinds of botanical exhibitions throughout the globe, including The Royal Horticultural Society, London, where he won the Grenfell medal five times consecutively; The Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh, and The Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

He had also campaigned for trees in Madras for many years. He had also won countless awards and worldwide recognition. He was listed as one of the top 50 flora painters of the world. His other achievements are as follows:

• Several of his paintings are in the collection of the Smithsonian in the U.S. and the Kew Gardens in the U.K.

• He is featured in the Database of scientific illustrators – 1450 to 1950 and the Hunt Botanical Library, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1999.

• His collections have been cited at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation, Arts Centre Washington, and Carnegie Mellon.

• From 1958-67 he was press liaison officer at British Information Services in Madras. His techniques included botanical ink drawing, wash, and watercolor.

• His work was exhibited from June 5th to 23rd, 1984, at the Portland Art Museum.

• He had also prepared 15 paintings of wildflowers (by which he was most fascinated) that belonged to Pacific Northwest region.

• Nancy Reagan (former film actress and wife of former U.S. President, Ronald Reagan) bought some of his works.

He was the founder of Environmental Society of Madras in 1989 with the sole concept to make people aware of the ecological damage; mankind unintentionally might have been bestowing. He feared that in the next 10 years, half of the population might face an epidemic or some other form of natural imbalance.

On December 30th, 1988, there was a news published that O.T. Ravindran was chosen by the United States to design a postal stamp that was meant to represent the flora of the two countries, that is U.S.A. (Columbine, found in Colorado) and India (Glory Lily, found all over the country) under a sister-city program. Since Denver, Colorado had adopted Madras as its sister, the flowers were meant to represent both the regions.

He also visited the U.S.A. the following year to create “Madras garden” at Denver Botanical Garden that would be keeping the typical flora of Madras, such as Tulasi (holy basil), neem (margosa), and curry leaves.

He designed a painting to showcase an Indian stamp that depicts the banyan tree, a part of a natural series the Postal Department came up with. On 12th October 1991, six multicolored stamps (of denomination – 1.00, 2.50, 3.00, 4.00, 5.00, and 6.50P) that represented his botanical paintings were released by the Department of Posts, India. On 9th October 1993, four more stamps (of denomination – 1.00, 6.00, 8.00, and 1.100P) were released. In each of the cases, each (gravure coated gummed) stamp paper had dimensions of 3.91X2.90 cm. Number per issue sheet was 35, each with a dimension of 50.8X53.5 cm. The total number of stamps (by India Security Press) printed of OTR was one million that year.

His experience in the United States

Ravindran admired the American wildflowers and painted them during his visits there. His collection resides there to this day.

"O.T. Ravindran might do for the weeds and wildflowers of India what James Audubon did for the birds of America," wrote an American columnist who reviewed after seeing an exhibition of his pencil drawings and watercolor paintings at the Carnegie Art Center in Walla Walla, Washington, in 1984.

He noticed that an average American particularly those who would live in the suburban knew very well about the plants and liked to cultivate them. Moreover, the seeds were readily available in the supermarkets as well; that was quite far from the picture in India.

He found several like-minded people of varying age groups with whom he could exchange information. He found lots of wildflowers in America that were closely related to Indian wildflowers. People would invite him to their places and he would successfully identify them such as – Tumbleweed, Forget-me-not, Buttercup, Firebush, Indian paintbrush – to name a few, and would be enthusiastically cheered.

People would always see him sketching and painting the flora; hence would offer him a price to buy. In his own words he said that it was indeed a “painful thing” to get his work sold, so he decided to present it to (late) Lady Bird Johnson's (widow of the former U.S. President, Lyndon B. Johnson) Wildflowers Research Center in Austin, Texas. She adored the wildflowers and contributed to beautifying the city. She “deeply appreciated” Ravindran's conveyance to safeguard the nature through his paintings.

To his friends, he was “crazy” but he himself clarified there were other “unusual” (American) individuals who went into this field much before him – Chief Seattle, Thoreau, and Johnny Appleseed – who were passionate about making this world a better place to reside just like he did.

As a Chief Guest

O.T. would get invited to various places as a Chief Guest where there was a get-together related to Botany. The Bulletin of Madras Naturalists' Society, back in May 1985, covered this information. According to an article, on 14th April he accompanied other enthusiasts in Guindy National Park and provided his own genuine viewpoints, such as choosing the right species of Avenue trees, and plantation of “nodive trees” that can withstand nature's harshness, so that the extreme natural calamities such as cyclone cannot damage the exotic species. The members were grateful for his presence and hoped that he would continue to do this more often and help them identify the difference between the trees, plants, and shrubs. OTR passed away in February 2006; at the age of 72 years following a brief illness.

References

1. Ainy (19 January 2014). Orchids of India 1991. Issued on 12 October 1991.- http://www.istampgallery.com/orchids-of-india/

2. BULLETIN of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1994). - http://www.huntbotanical.org/admin/uploads/hibd-bulletin-9-1.pdf

3. Dr. Gift Siromoney's Nature Study. A plant sang by the poets. retrieved by THE INDIAN EXPRESS, Saturday, 21 February 1976. - https://www.cmi.ac.in/gift/Nature/natu_sung.htm

4. Baskaran, S. Theodore (24 December 2006, updated: 26 March 2012). The man who painted the lilies. THE HINDU. - http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/the-man-who-painted-the-lilies/article3232881.ece

5. G. Tilak, Sudha (3 June 2016). The cloudburst of colors. The Hindu Business Line. - https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/cloudburst-of-colours/article8682386.ece

6. Database of Scientific Illustrators 1450-1950. The University of Stuttgart. - http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/hi/gnt/dsi2/index.php?table_name=dsi&function=details&where_field=id&where_value=10904

7. O. T. Ravindran. Public profile. - https://www.geni.com/people/O-T-Ravindran/6000000003050594455

Ravindran Oyitty Thavorath

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