Awash in colour

Published in the Express Week dated April 4, Saturday, 1998.

Copyright: The Indian Express, Chennai.

Normally, the word 'painting' would stimulate serious thought. Add a bunch of enthusiastic children to the picture and what you get is a canvas of spontaneous creativity. No holds barred.

Youngsters at the AMM Matriculation School, Kotturpuram gave their own idea to the subject of freedom, with live brush stroke images that were transferred from their imagination to the school compound wall.

Explained Chennai-based artist V. V. Ramani, "The idea came up when the students were asked to create something to commemorate the 50th year of Indian independence. Many responded with pictures of the tricolour or portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru."

"To make the presentation different, we allowed the children to let their minds free. Given only ten minutes, each child came up with a new concept. All these students are individually talented but lack exposure," he added.

The kindergarten kids were waiting desperately for their turn. As soon as the teacher made the announcement, the tiny tots lined up outside their class (LKG) and rolled out of the school compound, rather in the manner of a human toy train. All engines go.

Asked where they were headed for, they chorused, "To paint."

Indicating a can of paint, Ramani asked, "What colour is this?" Reply (en masse) "Red", and to another can, "Yellow". 

"What do I get when I mix them both?"

"Orange!"

Sumathi, who teaches the LKG 'B', asked the children what they would like to paint. 

There were mixed voices, "house", "cat", "balloon", "sun". The children held their brushes like true professionals, and in no time, there was paint all over the place -- saffron faces, orange clothes and shoes. Everything was submerged in colour. 

Each class had some space on the long wall facing the main road which was soon a feast for the eyes, with its representations of winged national leaders (indicating freedom).

A class had worked on a beautiful picture of Red Fort that had every brick in place.

One of the mini masterpieces displayed Mahatma Gandhi and his followers on one side and the British leaving India on the other, with a pendulum clock in the middle showing 12 o'clock midnight.

Mrs. George, the school principal gave credit for the whole exercise to Ramani and his wife Hema (whose idea it all was) and the student counsellor Leonora. She said the basic idea -- and you will agree, a good one too -- was "to keep political party advertisements off the wall."

Asked if they would wash away these paintings to make room for fresh batches next year, she said, "No, this will remain in the memory of those who leave the school. We will think of some other activity for those joining us in the next academic year." After all, creativity has no limits!

Hema, whose daughter Sweta studies in the UKG told us about her visits to art galleries, even during her pregnancy. "You could say that I wanted to 'induce' art into my child. You might be surprised to hear that Sweta is now able to identify one of Bhaskar's paintings (mostly cats), which she first saw when she was two years old at another art gallery, almost a year later."

Durelle O' Connor, the UKG class teacher, told us that there is a handful of budding artists in her class apart from Sweta -- Sherin, Solomon, Kavya and Kasturi. You will probably hear of some of the best prodigy painters in the city during the near future. And we will be there to tell you about it.

Sudha Shenoy