Ajay Singh likes to paint flowers, trees and houses. “The colours and shapes are exciting,” he says. His classmate S. Vignesh, on the other hand, says he likes to observe and paint scenes such as “people using the umbrella to take shelter when it rains.”
Interest in art work is not uncommon among school children; only both Ajay and Vignesh are Class 6 students at the Spastics Society of Karnataka (SSK), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working for the rehabilitation of children with neuromuscular and developmental disabilities. Their art work is on display and for sale at the exhibition ‘Inspiration’, which was inaugurated here on Friday.
For Bhavesh Varyani, another classmate, this is not the first time his paintings have got him fame. “In 2004, I won a painting competition and my photo appeared in the newspapers,” he recalls, with a tinge of pride.
Padma Janardhan, vice-principal of SSK, says art is therapeutic for these children and is a medium of self-expression for them. “They take time to learn. The training may start when they are 13 years old and it takes about six years for them to learn one aspect of art,” she explains.
She adds that while they may not be able to complete a full product on their own, they often work in an assembly-line kind of a model where they each specialise in one aspect of the art. Engaging in art work makes them alert and active, she says.
Apart from paintings, the children also make pouches and stationery items such as folders out of left-over cloth material.
Vidya Venkat, art-coordinator at SSK, says sometimes the children make an abstract form which is given some form later. “We give the finishing touches but the main art work is theirs,” she says.
About 45 paintings and other art work by around 15 children who are slow learners or suffering from cerebral palsy and autism are up for sale.
They will cost between Rs. 300 to Rs. 1,600. The exhibition is open till August 1 at The Purple Turtle Store, Domlur from 10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.
