Pretty planes adorn plain city walls

Want to see colourful murals or wall paintings of different kind depicting helicopters or fighter planes? You have them all nicely painted on the walls of HAL’s Senior Officers’ Enclave on Old Madras Road.

“These paintings are bewitching to the eyes and drivers on the busy road need to be careful. This is an art of different kind and should especially appeal to children,” says Rajashree Sonnad who stopped on her way to describe the pictures to her little one who she says is fond of planes.

The project is the brainchild of HAL.

“Our aim has been to induce some life on these mundane walls and give them a colourful look. Now, we realise how pleasing the whole exercise has turned out to be as people strolling or even driving on the road take a look at it,” says Dr R K Tyagi, Chairman, HAL.

The theme of showing the company products was deliberate as the wall encircles the enclave housing HAL’s senior officers.

“By making the walls look vibrant we are sending the positive message that we care for the beautification of city.

This also educates passerby as to what HAL stands for, its products and services.

These paintings also show the company’s heritage in a small way”, adds Dr Tyagi.

Another advantage of painting these walls is they remain clean as very few would think of defacing or sticking posters on the painted walls.

The idea seemed to have been welcomed not just by the people around but even by some senior executives of the company who took time off from their work and dabbled in the painting work with the help of the artists.

The plan was put into place three months ago.

The job of painting the 1300 sq ft wall was assigned to the artists Manohar R and Murugan R and their team of artists, who have executed similar work elsewhere in the city.

“It takes around three days to complete one picture as it involves sketching the picture in square boxes, placing it on the wall with proportionate scales and then applying the paint”, says Manohar.

According to the main artist Sivanandan, the durability of work should last at least two years although it would depend on the quality of the wall also. He is ably supported by two other artists Gurumurthy and Sekar.

He dismisses the notion that rain or extreme sunlight would affect these pictures.

“Everything has a life but it is our experience that this kind of work lasts longer than what people imagine, as we use special enamel and water-proof paints,” he says with confidence.

These two artists have made road-side footpaths their canvas to complete the work. “Our greatest satisfaction is when our work gets appreciated”, says Sivanandan.

Hundreds of commuters who take Old Madras road every day have made these artistes happy with their curious and appreciative glances over these creations.