“Imaginarium” is a showcase of art works by a nine-year-old girl. What makes it even more interesting is the variety of medium, the budding artist Alayna Zaid has worked with like glass paint, watercolour, acrylic on canvas, oil on canvas, glue with paint, shaving foam with paint, tissue paper for crating textures. As for the imagery, the fourth standard girl of the Inventure Academy, has borrowed from flora and fauna. A few abstract works are also part of the collection.
At an age when children discover new games everyday, Alayna spent her holidays at home to complete 40 paintings for the exhibition. While Alayna’s mother Uzma Irfan says her work were so good that they decided to put it out in the public domain, the young artist is nonchalant about the development. “I don’t know how it feels. All I know is I like to paint different themes like nature and animals in different textures,” says Alayna.
Alayna was three when her mother noticed her talent. “The same year I put her in informal ‘observe and learn classes’ with Nimmi Ravindran as she was too young. But gradually she started taking to it and she has actively been learning and experimenting with her teacher’s guidance since then,” says Uzma.
Alayna’s passion for colours can be seen in her ‘Psychedelic’ painting in which she has used glue and paint. To depict ‘Snowy Mountains’ on a sunny day she uses shaving foam whereas her ‘Twilight’ has colours literally flowing down the canvas as she had discovered the diluting paint. Allowing it to flow resulted in creating the effect. “I love the textures that come out of paint-knife and chopsticks too”, she says pointing out to her trees and leaves.
Alayna has made 300 paintings till now but what the little girl is particularly excited about is ‘Mandala’ art work. Recently finished in school, she used rice and a variety of seeds for which she received appreciation from her teachers.
Alayna Zaid’s works will be on display at Sublime Galleria till August 2
