At pains to paint master pieces

The ongoing art camp provides a right platform for students to showcase their creative skills. According to Prof. Patnaik, idea or concept is the main thing for an artist and that needs to be translated to an art, through a medium, be it painting or sculpture.

Jackiss from Assam and a student of Kala Bhavana Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan, working on his paintng at an art camp in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. -- Photo:C.V. Subrahmanyam

Is there a connection between pain and art? There is, says the Head of the Department of Fine Arts, Andhra University, Ravishankar Patnaik. “Pain is a cocoon from which good art emerges,” he points out. And there is ample display of this concept at the ongoing weeklong art camp being held at the department.

Gautam, a final BFA student from AU is working on a concept depicting the pain of the working class. “A man works all the day and gets paid meagrely. The stress and the pain is writ large on his face. And this is what I want to showcase in my fibreglass sculpture,” he says.

The same is the case with Sheikh Gul Mohammed form Varanasi and Jackiss from Assam, both students of Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan. While Sheikh in his paintings finds a medium to express the loss of his younger sister, Jackiss tries to showcase the ongoing political disturbances in the north-east.

According to Prof. Patnaik, idea or concept is the main thing for an artist and that needs to be translated to an art, through a medium, be it painting or sculpture.

This art camp is being held to facilitate the cross-interaction of ideas between students from different colleges and regions.

In total, about 30 students from AU, Kala Bhavana of Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan, and Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNUCFA), are taking part in the camp.

Hard work

While 13 students are focussing on sculpture, 17 are busy transforming their ideas on to the canvas. The ambience at the department is vivacious, as the 30 artists are almost working full time to bring out their master pieces before August 2, the concluding day of the camp.

While most of the painters are working with acrylic on canvas, the sculptors are working on fibreglass and iron scrap or mixed medium.

“The sculptors are putting in over 15 hours a day, as they have to first work on a maquette, then get the composition and the aesthetic visibility, before getting on to the final model be it on metal scrap or fibreglass moulds,” says Dr. Patnaik.

The camp is being conducted by Shilparamam Arts, Crafts and Cultural Society, an arm of Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department.