In Palakkad, at a shop in Peringode panchayat, Harish Kongad is bent over a fine black granite stone, intricately carving portraits. With every hit, gentle and forceful as the occasion calls for, a picture is born. It’s been almost 20 years since Harish started carving faces on an unconventional medium of art — granite. It was his mother who introduced him to the basics of drawing.
“Other than that, I never got any training. Everything has been self-taught. Though I started off as a blacksmith, later I shifted to carpentry as it provided a decent livelihod,” says Harish. Being a blacksmith and carpenter, Harish just had to fine-tune his carving skills before taking up his preferred art form full-time.
“I’ve seen portraits of politicians and celebrities painted beautifully. However, they are either framed or created on wooden materials. And they all fade over time. That is why I started looking for a lasting alternative,” he says.
“One day, as an experiment, I started carving a portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru on granite. It came out well. That was the beginning. Granite can last for a very long time,” says Harish. At first, Harish’s carvings lacked a seamless finish. The work felt more like a pencil sketch. With time, he figured out the importance of shading and adding more depth to the drawings. “It was while creating a portrait of Che Guevara that I began carving dots of different shades to add more depth,” says Harish.
Since then the artist began focusing more on portraits over his other carpentry works. From actors MGR, Mohanlal, Mammootty, and Surya, to fictional characters and politicians, the subjects of his portraits are of a wide variety. Harish even bagged a record from the Universal Record Forum (URF) for carving the portraits of 62 personalities on a 5ft tall and 2.5m wide granite stone in 2019.
The method
After outlining a portrait on granite, Harish begins the carving process. Patience and focus are a must throughout, he says. “Dots give a white shade and when exerted some pressure, it turns black. A slight mistake can destroy the drawing as a whole. You just have to abandon that granite piece and start all over again. The smallest of mistakes often happen to the eyes and cheeks. I have kept aside several such unfinished drawings. In fact, I have four unsuccessful portraits of Manju Warrier with me,” says Harish.
An A4 portrait takes about two days to complete, whereas an A3 size drawing takes about five days, he explains. As size differs, at times, it even takes up a month to finish the work. The process is tedious and time-consuming.
Harish says many come to him with orders for gifts, sometimes for carving pictures in the cemetery.
The artist had the chance to meet and gift his work to some famous personalities in person. Positive responses from Jayasurya, Vineeth Sreenivasan and M G Sreekumar have given a boost to the artist.
“Former officer Rishi Raj Singh met me and appreciated me in person after knowing that his portraits were also on the record-winning work. That was a heart-touching moment,” adds Harish. Despite being known as an artist who has won accolades, Harish claims that the art form hasn’t helped him reach anywhere in his life or to have financial backing.
“I’m the sole breadwinner of my family. My house is in a dilapidated condition and I want to earn a livelihood through this art form. I wish at least some of the great personalities whom I wish to give a portrait to, would visit my home. In this way, they could witness my living situation and might support me,” says Harish.
Over the years, Harish has been able to carve hundreds of portraits on granite, and his dream is to exhibit them on a larger scale.