T. K. Padmini (12 May 1940 – 11 May 1969) was an Indian painter from the south India state of Kerala. A recipient of multiple awards from the Chennai centre of the Lalit Kala Akademi, she was one of the prominent Indian woman painters. Her paintings have been displayed at The National Art Gallery, Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad and the Durbar Hall Ground Art Gallery of Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. She died on 11 May 1969 at the age of 29.
Biography
Padmini was born on 12 May 1940 at Kadancheri, a small village near Ponnani, a coastal town in the Malappuram district of the south Indian state of Kerala to Kinattinkare Damodaran Nair, a government clerk.[3] After early schooling at the local in Kadancheri, she did her higher school education at Basel Mission School, Ponnani and later at A. V. High School, Ponnani; it was during this time, her talent in arts was discovered by her arts teacher at school, K. L. Devassi. Her uncle, Divakara Menon, urged the poet, Edasseri Govindan Nair, who accepted the girl in his house so that she could continue art studies under Devassi. After passing the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination in 1956, she continued her training in art under the noted artist, Namboothiri, who taught her without any remuneration.
Padmini joined the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai in 1961, with assistance from Edasseri, Devan and Akkitham Narayanan, who was a student at the institution during those days. Here, she had the opportunity to study under K. C. S. Paniker who was the principal at that time. She completed the six-year diploma in four years by securing double promotion twice, passing with a first rank in 1965 and stayed in Chennai, joining Vidyodaya Girls School in 1966; she also worked at Adarsh Vidyalaya Matriculation School and Children’s Garden Matriculation School. Her marriage to K. Damodaran, an artist and a fellow student at the College of Fine Arts, was in May 1968. She died on 11 May 1969, at the age of 29, succumbing to the complications developed after childbirth; her child, too, did not survive.
She was an introvert who astonished us with the genius of her paintings. Her work won the praise of K. C. S. Paniker, who was then Principal of the college, says C. N. Karunakaran, artist and Padmini’s contemporary at Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai.
