Art for all

A programme that promotes works of artists in a camp proves one needn't have deep pockets to buy art

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The floors might be dusty and there might be nothing much by way of interiors, but what fills the many rooms on the second floor of Iconart Art Gallery ups the glamour quotient of the plain space.

In a small room on the left of the main door is an artist almost lying over his canvas; look carefully and you see that he is giving finishing touches to two huge giraffes on his equally humongous canvas. All around him, every inch of the walls are covered with paintings — framed, unframed, finished and unfinished — in various sizes. In fact they are everywhere, on the tables, the floor, walls and even spilling into other rooms.

In another room lie terracotta works which are drying in the indirect heat in the room. In this room another artist is creating various shapes by sliding a paint-dipped brush on paper.

Artists like Sridhar Rao, Santosh Kotagiri, Srikant Dunde, Avani Rao, Gangadhar, Maredu Ramu, Vasudev, Glower Paul, Lester Paul, Raghavendra, Srihari Bolekar, Bhaskar Rao, Narsinga Rao, Jinson, Ajay, Jayaprakash, Srinivas Reddy and Pavan Kumar are stationed at Iconart as a part of the artist residency programme. The works of these artists are also up sale as part of the buy art programme. The works are prices quite modestly- depending on the frame, size and medium — at anywhere between Rs.1000 and Rs. 10,000.

The idea of having this artist residency and buy art programme is to promote mid-career artists and encourage buyers to buy art. Apparently the trend seems to have caught on, as the artists feel upbeat when students came in to buy their works. “It was encouraging for us to see young students come and buy our works. And they bought a good number of our works. And when we asked what they are going to do with it, they said ‘we will gift them',” says one artist.

Among the finished works there is a series on the Golconda fort. Another finished series is on the roads and alleys of the city. The acrylic on canvas series is attracting the most visitors for its realistic feel.

Those interested in buying paintings of Indian Gods are likely to go for the Ganesha series. Srikant Dunde's strokes make for an interesting series on walls. Another series on display are the ones which mostly give a glimpse of the roads, hoardings and sight of the city.