Sivabalan is a contemporary artist whose work draws its inspiration from the quiet poetry of everyday life. Working in a distinctive semi-realistic style, he transforms the people, moments, and atmospheres he encounters — in the street, at a temple, in a market, at a family celebration — into paintings that capture the grace and beauty of the ordinary.
Sivabalan holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and began his creative journey as a child, drawn to the colour and pattern-making of rangoli. That early fascination with colour has remained at the heart of his practice ever since. Over the course of his career, his technique has evolved from watercolour through oil painting to his current medium of choice, acrylic — valued for its quick drying time, its opacity, and the flexibility it affords. He works extensively with a palette knife rather than a brush, a technique acrylic paint is particularly suited to, giving his surfaces a distinctive texture and immediacy.
Much of Sivabalan’s imagery originates in direct observation. Visits to temples, colleges, and local markets become opportunities for on-the-spot sketching, as he studies the movement, colour, and atmosphere around him — a woman carrying a pot with natural, graceful movement, the play of light through temple pillars, the energy of a flower or fruit market. These sketches are later developed into finished paintings in the studio.
Two subjects recur throughout his body of work. The first is temple architecture, particularly the interplay of light, shadow, and colour filtering through columned interiors — an experience he describes as feeling like looking directly into a painting, and the inspiration behind his large-scale temple series. The second is the elephant, a subject that has captivated him since childhood for its grandeur and enduring presence in both personal memory and cultural imagination.
For Sivabalan, inspiration is not sought but found — in the rhythms of daily life, the colours of a festival, or the quiet dignity of an ordinary gesture.