Manas Ranjan Jena gives final touches to his painting at the workshop. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Nov. 30: Art can be more than just a hobby, it can be a way of earning bread, believes an artist from Orissa Manas Ranjan Jena.

A faculty member of BK College of Arts in Bhubaneswar says art can be taken as a career and it is high time people start thinking out of the box.

At an art workshop organised by Society for Promotion and Professional Excellence and Jamshedpur School of Art for the first time, Jena was present to offer tips to the 100-odd children in nuances of art. Apart from training the kids in finer aspects of art, the workshop was aimed at making the parents understand that their wards can up art as a profession as the returns are equally good.

Jena also put his thoughts on canvas and came up with a painting of a tribal girl. This was followed by an interactive session were parents and children were told about scope in the field. “We are educating the children that there is something beyond engineering and medicine as art in India is developing like never before. We wou-ld try to organise a workshop like this every six months that would help the art students here to become practised hands,” said Jenny Shah, the secretary of Society for Promotion and Professional Excellence and Jamshedpur School of Art.

Since there are few buyers in the state, Society for Promotion and Professional Excellence supported by Tata Steel would organise shows in the metropolitans where the works of the art students would find buyers.

“Students need to be guided so that they take the right path. Traditional thinking needs to be changed and freedom in art is required,” said Jena.

The art students in the city were more than happy to participate in a workshop like this. “Parents do not encourage their children when they want to do something creative. They want to secure the future of the kids but in the process kill the passion and liking of many. They forget that artists like Satish Gujral sell their paintings for crores,” said Abhishek Shukla, a student of Jamshedpur School of Art.