INDIRA - NURTURING TALENT

NAGUESH  RAO  SARDESSAI

‘Canopy Azure – Art & Design Community’, a brainchild of Indira Pai Anglo, has come a long way from its informal inception several years back.

Indira, a commercial art graduate, never really indulged in serious commercial art. In spite of being a trained commercial photographer with laudable skill and amazing eye for aesthetics, she resolved to dedicate her life in the promotion of art and nurturing talent.

Soon after her graduation from the Goa College of Art, Indira plunged into the field of teaching and began offering classes for art enthusiasts. Minus active publicity and promotion, she began to get overwhelming response. Almost two decades into running an informal class, ‘Canopy Azure – Art &
Design Community’ got a concrete and formal form.

Things began to look brighter after she formalized the classes by registering it in the beginning of 2012. ‘I realized that the interest in art and the awareness has risen to an unexpected level,’ says Indira with a satisfied smile. ‘Gone are the days when art was a subject of amusement.’

Soon after the launch of ‘Canopy Azure’, Indira organized an exhibition of the art works produced by her students at the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao. It had over 200 art works on display followed by another one for the Rotary Club. She is flooded with the students from the age group of 5 to 60 plus enthusiasts.

‘There’s no particular age to start practicing art,’ says Indira with a reassuring voice. ‘I have students above 60 who had unfulfilled desire to take up art as a profession. Here, they feel, they have the opportunity to relive those days.’

Indira began by organizing and holding art and craft camps during the summer vacations whilst attending to her domestic responsibilities. ‘I’m indebted to my husband, Janardhan, for his wholehearted support and guidance,’ remarks Indira with deep reverence.

Her daughter, Uttara is an aspiring interior designer and the other progeny, Ashlesha, is studying in junior college.

Indira has gone beyond family responsibility and classroom teaching. ‘I got the opportunity to give back to the community when ‘Konkani Bhasha Mandal’ decided to open ‘Ravindra Kelekar Knyan Mandir’, an English medium school in Margao,’ states Indira.

She, along with her current and past students, painted the wall opposite this school as a publicity event. The wall transformed into a message board that spoke for the women and gave voice to the issues concerning them.   

‘Artists are social beings and have social responsibilities,’ states Indira with satisfied glee.

Many of her students displayed commendable works at the recently concluded art exhibition at the Kala Academy, Panaji. Notable amongst them are Dr. Amla Kamat, Natarajan, Shaheen Sayed, Dr. Ankita, Vaishnavi Morajkar, Villi Timblo, Varali Shirodkar, Apurva, Ila Shiva, Manashri Pai and many others.

This was the third show in a row where Indira showcased her students’ works and she plans to go a long way in identifying, nurturing and promoting art enthusiasts.  

AFRICAN VIGNETTES

NAGUESH  RAO  SARDESSAI

Chief Minister Shri. Manohar Parrikar inaugurated ‘African Vignettes’, a painting exhibition, by Gayatri Siddhaye at the Kala Academy, Goa, on May 3rd.

Travelogues record the experiences of an author or a filmmaker touring a place for the pleasure of travel. The words are infused with graphical potential. Microscopic details pop up to aid your imagination and the readers are transported to an unexplored terrain.

Artists’ ease your journey by offering you a platter of images to juxtapose and jumble. They invite you into their world.

Gayatri Siddhaye’s tour to a place, as exotic as Africa, left her with an intense urge to present a pictorial ‘Travelogue’. Africa mesmerized her to the point where she felt overwhelmed by the exciting hues, eye-catching permutations and combinations of colours, the sinewy dance, supple bodies, springy gait of African people, nature and the warm hospitality.

The tour left an indelible mark on her creative being and the images began to poke her into action. Restless Gayatri churned out compositions that had the African flavor yet maintained Indian ethos. Gayatri’s journey in the field of art, though not very long, has some important milestones. She has participated in various group shows and had a very successful two-women show at a private gallery.

Besides this, Gayatri participated in a workshop conducted by ‘Fulbright Scholar’ Kathryn Myers and the works produced here were subsequently shown in Goa and Chennai.

Gayatri, through these paintings, explores the life in Africa. The impression has mutated into sturdy forms that flow through the brush as casually as leaves sprouts out of a stem. ‘African Vignettes’ touches the life of the people there. ‘At Leisure’, ‘Dance of Joy’, ‘Serenading’ are few of the works that brings forth the joie de vivre of Africans associated with African population.

Gestures, the mode of non-verbal communication with visible bodily actions, remained the raw and primary mode of communication of human beings long before language evolved. Gayatri transplants that in her highly stylized images with tabular structure. Large pouted lips that stick out as appendage, unique headgear, earthy hued skin, domesticated animals strategically arranged and such uniquely African elements accentuate the identity of her influence.

Gayatri’s African sojourn has culminated into paintings that present a series of short impressionistic scenes displaying her ability to fuse the two, i.e. Indian cultural influence and fleeting African impression, and spawning a distinctive identity.

The show was on view till May 6, 2013.