A recent work titled Looking Again by Das and (below) artist Debasree Das

Calcutta, April 20: A Guwahati girl who found it difficult to convince her parents that art could indeed make a lucrative career has just won a trip to Europe, thanks to the brush and an exceptionally creative mind.

Come June, Debasree Das, a freelance artist, is all set to tour the famous galleries and museums in Paris, Rome and Florence. “I am very excited about this trip. I will be able to see some of the finest works of the masters in the field.”

Das, a graduate from the Government College of Art and Crafts, Guwahati, has won the Camlin Art Foundation Euro Art Tour, 2009.

Every year, Camlin Art Foundation, instituted by Camlin Ltd — a company associated with art and craft products — holds art exhibitions in the four regions of India. The winners of these exhibitions are eligible for this art tour. Five students and four professional artists are selected from each zone for this 10-day tour.

Das, the only girl in the entire group, has been selected for her work Untitled in the professional category for 2010 from the western region. A panel of artists, including Prabhakar Kolte, Amitava Das and D.L.N. Reddy, interviewed her on her work, attitude and future goals.

“Das’s work and her vision satisfied our jury. They were also impressed by her knowledge and use of various medium in her work,” said the brand manager of Camlin, Youvraj Dutt.

Coming from a middle-class family in Guwahati where drawing and painting was considered nothing more than a hobby, it was an uphill task for Das to convince her parents to let her take up art as a career.

“Initially, I enrolled in one of those art classes that you have in your neighbourhood when I was in school. But I never looked at art as a career option,” she said.

However, life scripted a different story for her. As she struggled to cope with high school subjects and peer pressure, painting became her only solace.

“Instead of studying, I would scribble or sketch in my notebooks. With a pencil or brush in my hand I felt like a different person. It was my meditation,” she added.

While books failed her, brushes gave her confidence. The void that books left suddenly got filled with colours and she decided to pursue a graduate course in the fine arts.

Though her father wanted her to complete graduation before she joined the course, she managed to convince him.

“With my family supporting me, I had won half the battle,” she said.

And under the tutelage of her neigh- bourhood art teacher — Ajit Seal, who also taught at the Government College of Art and Crafts in Guwahati, she focused on art as her career.

“She has extraordinary creativity in her and all I did was nurture and channelise her talent,” said Seal. He attributes her success to the boldness that she showed to charter a different course in life.

The fine arts course opened a floodgate – books were no longer her enemy. “I read almost everything that I could lay my hands on,” Das said.

She became one of the toppers in her batch and went on to do masters in visual arts from Baroda, where she has now relocated.

Das has participated in exhibitions at various galleries in Mumbai, Calcutta, Guwahati and Goa. She has also won the prestigious Birla Academy of Art and Culture award in graphic category in 2008.

For an artist who loves to sleep on a blank canvas and dream of the hues that will infuse life in it, a colourful journey has just begun.