Infusing a new life to water colour painting

Expressbuzz, Feb 4, 2010
Shyamhari Chakra

IN VIEW of the diminishing interest of the artists to paint with water colours, Orissa Charukala Parishad, the four decade old forum of artists of the State and the Capitalbased Orissa Modern Art Gallery came together to host an artists’ camp to celebrate the joy and beauty of working with the marginalised medium. Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Kolkata provided the financial support for the two-day event that concluded with en exhibition of the works.


The camp received rave response from the young artists with 34 of them representing all the art colleges of the State. Even a few professional painters attended the camp. “The encouraging response has encouraged us to make it an annual affair,” stated Gallery director and camp coordinator Tarakant Parida.

Aptly titled – Earth and Sky – the myriad moods and hues of nature came alive in most of the paintings at the camp. Presenting a macro view, their frames on the canvas celebrated the beauty of the mountains, lakes, trees, rivers and so on. It was amazing to watch the imagination of the city-bred boys (there were no girls in the camp and we wondered why!) largely dwelling on the rural life.

While most of the works produced during the camp were worthy of being exhibited, some of the painters deserve special mention like Chintamani Padhi and Naresh Suna (both from Bolangir); Makardhwaj Sahoo (Sundargarh); Giridhari Sahu (Bargarh), Bijan Reddy (Kalahandi) and Hrusikesh Panda (Kendrapada). In Chintamani’s Village Life, shadows of the houses and human beings brought in the exactitude of photography while each stroke in Giridhari’s frame generated a human frame making his canvas the most complex and creative composition. Similarly, Naresh and Makardhwaj were masters in judicious use of colours to convey the moods of the season and of the human beings in their paintings.