The Chennai Rail Museum kick-started the new year by holding an art camp — A Skein of trains — at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Perumbur, on Sunday.
The camp is held every year mainly for children. This year, however, 12 renowned senior artists from the city participated in the camp. They were all busy sketching on their canvasses.
The camp was also open to the public, which provided a platform for the artists to interact with people and budding talents and share their experiences and skills.
Thejomaye Menon, an artist and associate professor of art and design at JBAS College, was painting a connection between a person and the train on her canvas.
“The person can be anyone, a dancer or a construction worker. This painting is about his journey in a train. And the journey is turbulent which is why I have used rougher strokes,” she said, painting the edges of the train red.
R.M. Palaniappan, director, Lalit Kala Akademi, too participated in the event. He painted the back of a train wagon and drew lines on top of it. “The lines on the wagon are connected to each other. This shows that trains connect India,” he said and went on to finish the canvas. While senior artists were busy painting their canvasses on one side, around 30 children of ICF employees were painting the walls and metal boards outside the premises.
“We usually hold these camps for children, but this year we decided to involve senior artists as well,” said Arun Devraj, curator of the Chennai Rail Museum.
“The canvasses will be displayed at the museum,” he said.
The event was followed by a closing ceremony and distribution of souvenir to the artists. Bharatanatyam exponent Chitra Visweswaran, Carnatic singer Charumathi Ramachandran, artist M.S. Murthy and athlete Gnanasekaran attended the ceremony.
