Pachimuthu Gounder (1885 - 1971) was a native of Vellalore. He used to work from home those days. Creating boards for the Podanur Railway Station, description boards for the newly founded Agricultural College and similar activities had been his forte. Swamikannu Vincent had commissioned Pachimuthu to do wall drawings for his Variety Hall, the oldest cinema hall in India. Pachimuthu Gounder had already been doing boards for the touring talkies belonging to Vincent by then. Lots of work came up and Pachimuthu Gounder came to be known as ' Painter Pachimuthu '. He set up shop opposite to Variety Hall and this took place under the advice of Swamikannu Vincent in the year 1921.
Pachimuthu Gounder (1885 - 1971) was a native of Vellalore. He used to work from home those days. Creating boards for the Podanur Railway Station, description boards for the newly founded Agricultural College and similar activities had been his forte. Swamikannu Vincent had commissioned Pachimuthu to do wall drawings for his Variety Hall, the oldest cinema hall in India. Pachimuthu Gounder had already been doing boards for the touring talkies belonging to Vincent by then. Lots of work came up and Pachimuthu Gounder came to be known as ' Painter Pachimuthu '. He set up shop opposite to Variety Hall and this took place under the advice of Swamikannu Vincent in the year 1921.
The painter had adopted Nanjammal and she had been married to Kumaraswamy. A grandson was born through Nanjammal in 1930 and he was named as C.K.Ponnuswamy (1930 - 1998). This joy prompted Pachimuthu Gounder to call his venture, Swamy Painting Works (SPW) by 1932. Meanwhile the good Kumaraswamy was given the responsibility of managing some cows.
It was from this dairy farm that Kumaraswamy supplied milk to RHR (Royal Hindu restaurant) founded by M.A.Guruswamy Nadar.
Hard working Ponnuswamy would work with his father and grandfather. He would vend milk during the early hours and work with his grandfather during the day. Ponnuswamy took over the business eventually in 1952 and Swamy Painting Works became Swamy Arts. The logo was SPW - Swamy Arts. Ponnuswamy had been married to Parvathi in 1951. Jewel Press had printed the wedding card. The couple were blessed with 5 sons and one daughter. In fact Ponnuswamy had been working since 1948.
C.K.Ponnuswamy was an innovator and business flourished under him. He took up name boards, cine slides, banners, news paper advertisement design, 2 wheeler painting, exhibition entrances etc., He was very busy and had more than 20 people under him. His son Rajarathinam joined him in 1975 and a branch was set up in 100 feet road and Swamy Arts was the first in its ilk to have a branch office. The youngest son Muthukumar is in the arts business these days.
"Those were times when artists were known as painters. Grandfather Pachimuthu Gounder was an artist and father C.K.Ponnuswamy was very good with line drawings. The transition from ' painter ' to ' arts ' to 'publicity ' took place during the times of my father. Swamy Arts went into brochure designing too. The concept called ' hoarding ' came in during the period of Swamy Arts. The artist started losing importance over the years with time and became a labourer. Many new comers came in. People who could not draw or paint became owners of firms who hired the artists. Times changed and new situations cropped up. However father was an innovator.
He was the President of Tamilnadu Oviyargal Sangam and also Coimbatore District Professional Artists Association. Hoardings became a rental activity eventually. Swamy Arts had seen it all, from railway track boards to painting the logo on the aircraft belonging to LMW (Lakshmi Machine Works)," stated CP.Shanmugham the founder of Shanography. He is into product and industrial photography.
The hoardings were owned by influential people and they had begun using artists to make money. Government space were easier to market as the capital cost was lower. This was because the hoardings were simple due to locational advantages. If one had to make hoardings on private properties, it involved a lot of money. The arts business could have evolved into becoming an advertising agency. Technology had been the cause for both - rise and fall of this kind of business.
Those were times went enamel boards were the thing to happen. Pachimuthu Gounder promoted his boards in the place of enamel boards for they were cheaper and they took lesser time to make. He was highly recognized and this gave him the oppourtunity to create the ' Vazhthu Madal ' (An appreciative and memorial scroll) for Mahatma Gandhi during his 1934 visit. Pachimuthu Gounder had done the scroll personally. The father in law and son in law got themselves a house in Gokhale street in Ramnagar.
"Father used to move about on his Royal Enfield Bullet. He would place the work of his client in the front for he valued it much. In fact he had created an advertisement scheme for Scissors cigarettes. The petty shops of those times were made to allot their side spaces for Scissors advertisements. He used to tell people to have big boards for their shops and he considered this to be mutually beneficial. Pakshiraja Studios and Central Studios had their own teams to work along, but father used to work on with them too. Father was very good with employee welfare measures. All the employees were given a free cinema pass once a month and they could use it in order to enjoy a movie with their families. There was a room in our office for sick employees. The sick employees could stay in free of cost and a doctor would be brought in to attend to them. Food and medicines would be at the cost of the company. A separate artist would do God pictures and father shared the income which came along with high value projects. Temples were not charged for banners. It was free for Thiruvizhas (festivals) too. The internally moving slide in cinema halls was another innovation brought in by father. He promoted hydro dip painting and this technique was kept as a secret for sometime. Artists learned marketing techniques and left, while raw hands learned it all and left. All the major artists had done an innings with Swamy Arts. I still remember the priest of the Perur Patteeswarar temple visiting the office in order to narrate the story connected with the deity. This happened over two months and the art work for the temple had been commissioned under the guidance of the Perur MLA, Natarajan," added Shanmugham.
C.K.Ponnuswamy had two teams inside Swamy Arts and they would compete with each other. Each of the teams had their own artists, painting assistants and carpenters. Swamy Arts was so well known that the post used to reach with just ' Swamy Arts, Coimbatore ' on it. C.K.Ponnuswamy was quite well connected. He knew all the important personages of the region. G.D.Naidu, Dr.N.Mahalingam and the owners of each and every cinema hall were known to him.
The jeera or the sweet syrup in the work of Swamy Arts was the ' Sanjeevi Hanuman ' done for ABT Parcel Service. People used to come and see it being made. It was sacred for them. Lots of people used to call and say that they had enjoyed a good darshan of Hanuman ! The lorries belonging to ABT Parcel Service used to be emblazoned with a nice painting of Sanjeevi Hanuman by Swamy Arts. Especially the silver grey background for the Sanjeevi Hanuman on the lorry would make it look as though the deity was literally flying in the sky.
Swamy Arts is into its hundredth year now and this pioneer had helped commerce flourish in Coimbatore through its innovative work.