from the inimitable kannagi statue to the historic napier bridge some of madrass ageold architectural icons find an artistic appearance on a compound wall opposite the ripon building this wall is among the many such public walls in the city that are getting a splash of colour under the greater corporation of chennais singara chennai 20 projectthrough this project the corporation aims to refurbish the posterridden public walls of the city while collaborating with different kinds of artists across chennais 15 zones chennai corporation commissioner gagandeep singh bedi says the idea is to depict tamil nadus art and culture on these walls of course in some of the walls the local sponsors have tried to propagate modern art but our broad focus is on tamil art sculptures architectural landmarks its flora and fauna we want the people of chennai to be proud of the city and call it singara chennaiwith around 100 artists taking part in this beautification project we catch up with a few of them on what goes behind their sketchesa revival of naatupura kalaigalartist jpk vijay who was behind the assorted paintings in ennore and manali says that he observed the city and its subjects before zeroing in on concept notes his paintings highlight folk arts such as therukoothu oyilattam and thapattam among other themes recreating the tamil parambariyam through public art will definitely help with the revival of the naatupura kalaigal among masses chennai has featured quite a bit of concepts such as kabaddi silambam and jalikattu through its art already so i wanted to focus on something a bit different he says the art also had to reflect the tone and nature of its premises he says for instance vijay painted a scene of a family having a traditional meal on a compound wall near a hotel apart from being a great source of livelihood for artists such initiatives will also make people think twice before dirtying compound walls with posters and dirt he says adding that he dreams of painting tamil nadus unsung heroes and icons on its walls in the futurechennais landmarks in grayscaleprabakars painting opposite ripon building evokes a sense of nostalgia the wall features some of chennais historic landmarks in grayscale we wanted to document tns monuments with these paintings we collected a lot of original images and took them as references we further decided to paint it in greyscale to give people a sense of relaxation when they see the art the freelance artist says adding that the idea was to create a recall factor among the people of chennai walking past these wallselango a freelance artist who worked alongside prabakar on the wall says we wanted to recreate chennais atmosphere it was very rewarding and fulfilling when art like this makes people stop and take notice it makes us feel satisfiedthe flavours of north chennaithe pillars between the tollgate and wimco nagar metro station in north chennai are getting a colourful fix as we speak shailesh bo the artist