THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s hard getting to know the budding artist within the shy demure girl at first glance. However, spend a few more minutes speaking to her, and she turns all vibrant with energy, running around the gallery, pointing out and explaining the concept and theme of each and every one of her works.
Meet Anavadya D, a class II student of Siddhartha Central School, Pallimon, Kollam, a budding talent who started experimenting with doodles, lines and shapes since a very young age. The tiny tot, who currently specialises in line drawings, comic sketches and caricatures, is exhibiting around 300 odd drawings at the Museum Auditorium in the city. The exhibition is being organised by Siddhartha foundation, Kollam.
Says Resmi, Anavadya’s mother, “She gets the subject for her drawings from simple events. Once she puts pen on paper to do a line drawing, she never stops till it is completed.” An example for it is a drawing on display of Lord Shiva which was started and completed from a single line, says Anavadya.
Anavadya’s fascination with pencil and paper started at two years of age. Since then, the young girl hasn’t looked back and has been gaining more prowess. Her drawings, so far, have been exhibited thrice in Kollam. Exhibitions are being planned in Kozhikode, Thrissur and Ernakulam.
Another one of her displayed drawings involved a hospital scene- a patient being treated on a hospital bed while a terrified boy is seen waiting for his turn. While some of her drawing series go on to convey a story, many of them are just simple sketches of landscapes, angels, fairies, smiling sun, moon and stars, subjects children hold close to.
While these may come across as simple drawings made by a seven-year-old, her caricatures and some of her other precisely close drawings speak a totally different story. Showing a few of those, she says, “ Some of these are ones I have copied from comic strips in newspapers, and I have added my own elements in others.” One such hilarious drawing involves the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan.
The young artist doesn’t even need a good amount of time to finish one of these works, needing just five to ten minutes for most of them. Says Resmi, “She is fast with her fingers. She can even complete around 25 drawings in one sitting.”
The seven-year-old who loves to draw whenever she has the time to spare, has around 3,000 drawings to her credit so far. Adds Deepak, “However, we are unable to display all of it as the hall is not large enough.” Though she hasn’t used colours, not even crayons for most of her drawings, she does have a small stock of watercolour paintings with her. Bustling with enthusiasm, Anavadya concludes by saying, “I wish to be an artist when I grow up.”
The exhibition will be on till August 16, and is open to the public from 10 am till 6 pm.