An excited Virat Karan runs from one end of a Bengaluru art gallery, which is exhibiting his paintings, to the other. Thirty-four of his paintings are being exhibited at Sublime Galleria here as part of a show titled ‘Prodigy’.
But as he runs, the toddler’s legs give way and he cries for his mother. Once he is safely ensconced in his mother’s arms, he is entranced by the city skyline, which he can see from the large glass windows of the gallery.
The 22-month-old boy, who turns two on May 29, has been wielding the paint brush since he was six months old. So far he has pained a hundred abstract paintings, and all his acrylic on canvas reflect his vivid imagination.
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Four of his paintings were selected and will be showcased at the AIFACS (All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society) in New Delhi as part of the Art-Sight exhibition alongside the works of legends including M.F. Hussain, Ram Kumar and Vijender Sharma.
“On the three paintings, Virat consciously poured water and created a new pattern. Of late he asks for mustard and methi from my kitchen and sprinkles them. Apart from using his nails and fingers, he has used comb and coconut scraper for textures,” says his mother Divya Karan, who lives in Langford Road in Bengaluru.
His father Rajashekaran adds that though they encourage him to play games, he pleads with them for painting material.
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His baby talk also created a sense of merriment when he kept repeating ‘yed’ instead of red, when asked to identify colours.