THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The winners of the International Children’s Online Painting Competition in memory of prodigious child artist Edmund Clint were declared on Tuesday after the jury went through close to 39,000 works it received from the artists in the age groups from 4-16 across as many as 96 countries. Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran, announced a list of 110 winners of whom 15 are eligible for attractive tour packages with family. Ten of the 15 are from foreign countries.
The first prize went to Parth Joshi, 12, of Vadodara in Gujarat. He, along with four other top winners from India, become eligible for a five-night Kerala travel accompanied by two members of the family, the minister told reporters here.
Fourteen-year-old Nafisa Tabassum Authay of Bangladesh won the second prize. She, along with nine other children from abroad who won the top prizes, will be eligible for a five-night Kerala tour with two members from the family. Aaradhya PG, a six-year-old Malayali girl, fetched the third prize. She figures among the 40 winners from the host state who will receive a cash award of Rs 10,000 each. The top three winners will get a certificate and a memento. Twenty other winners, too, will receive mementos. The artists whose works were shortlisted will get special prizes, while all the participants will receive certificates.
Clint (1976-83) was a Kochiite who drew more than 25,000 pictures in 2,522 days of his life before a prolonged illness cut short his life. Born to M T Joseph (who died earlier this year) and Chinnamma Joseph, the boy’s life and works went on to earn increasing global acclaim. Clint’s life has found portrayal in seven books and two documentaries besides in a 2017 Malayalam feature film. Clint was aged four when he topped a painting competition where a 16-year-old emerged second. This has led the organisers to fix the age bracket for this online event.
The 2018 edition of the competition received larger and more widespread response than the first (2017), the minister noted, adding the number of entries this time was 38,995, against 5,000 in the debut edition. This edition of the competition stands out as it was conducted on a larger global scale, he said.
The competition jury comprised experts comprising Bihar Museum Director Mohammed Yusuf, artists Vrindavan Solanki (Gujarat), Vipta Kapadia (Mumbai) and Prof Suresh K Nair (Varanasi), besides Kerala Lalithakala Akademi chairman Nemom Pushparaj and art critic ML Johnny.