CHENNAI: For Amrita Visweswaran, her art has always been about giving back to society. She started off a decade back as a wee six-year-old — by creating artwork for calendars that were sold by word of mouth, and the proceeds were donated to Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional children (www.mnc.org). The centre is run by her grandfather, N Kumar, who is the vice chairman of SANMAR group, founder of MNC and chairman of Bala Mandir Kamraj trust.
It was started for underprivileged children with special needs, in 1977. Amrita agrees that her grandfather “is inextricably linked to my efforts towards charity”.
Meanwhile, Kumar shares with us that Amrita indeed is the youngest donor on their list and has always used her talents and skill for a good cause. The talented youngster raised Rs 2.5 lakh through the sale of her calendars last year, when she had raised funds to support victims of the Coorg flood.
This year, when the youngster witnessed the hardships brought upon the parents of the children at MNC due to the pandemic, she decided to initiate another charity drive.
This time, besides word of mouth, Amrita plans to use a crowdfunding platform to make a bigger impact as many corporates have directed their CSR funds to other agencies due to the pandemic. In this virus-riddled year, she is steering clear of calendars as Amrita feels that all the plans that she had marked on her calendar last year didn’t really pan out. She has, instead, brought out gorgeous hardback notebooks.
Those who appreciate good stationery will definitely agree with Amrita that she has kept the price reasonable. Using canson montval fine board paper (300 gsm), which is Amrita’s favourite art paper, the books come in two sizes and there is the option of ruled and unruled. The cover layout has enigmatic prints of her acrylic canvases that she designed along with Malavika Mehra. The notebooks use natural shade 80 gsm map litho and sourced from the city as they are staunchly “vocal for local”.
Balancing her class 10 exams and her charity work, Amrita painted three different canvases for the covers of the notebooks. Having dabbled in water colours and oils, this 16-year-old student of Sishya School tells us that she prefers working with acrylics. The young artist is clearly discerning about the materials and stationery that she uses to create her work. In fact, she has always used Liquitex acrylics and those who knew her would get it for her from across the world as it was not available here until recently.
Her canvases are themed around sunsets and sunrises, and the CSK fan says,”I felt it was relevant to the times we are in — sunset and sunrise are about beginnings and endings.” Amrita, who takes photographs of the reference image, has picked the three sceneries with great thought and says that they remind her of happier times. From sunrise over the Coonoor hills to a sunset in Injambakkam, and the third one has a tropical beach — the paintings have a distinct style that has various shades of a hue blending and seeping through to illustrate each canvas uniquely.
Pocket book: 11 cm X 14 cm @ Rs 115
Notebook: 21 cm X 14 cm @ Rs 175
Playing cards: One pack @ Rs 300
Limited editions of artbook @ Rs 650