Tiny hands but big and beautiful ideas, few with the brush and few with just a touch of crayons. Twenty children from the age group of four to fourteen were given a chance to showcase their creativity at a three day children’s exhibition at Orissa Modern Art Gallery.
Aptly named ‘Beginner’s Brush’, the art work, though belonging to novices who learn art at the gallery, has a message of calm innocence and a troublefree mind. Varying from temples to natural elements like flowers, birds, animals and scenic valleys to some modern art too, the little ones displayed an array of imagination. ‘‘I have been learning fine art here for close to a year and a half now. The work that has been included in the exhibition is a collection of the best we’ve drawn or painted within a year’s time,’’ said a smart eight year old Sushree. Infact, today’s kids go to school at such a young age and with so much of prior grooming and exposure that its not much of a task to handle them, said Jayashree Jena, the art teacher at the gallery. ‘‘All you need to do is teach them basics and they come up with hundreds of ideas. This annual exhibition of chidren’s art begins on Children’s day every year as an attempt to encourage and motivate kids to keep improving,’’ she added.
While most of the contributors of the exhibition take art as an additional qualification and hobby not being sure about their ambition for the future owing to their small age, few like K Shriya seem to have decided to be professional artists one day.
--Namita Panda panda.namita@gmail.com